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diff --git a/44500-0.txt b/44500-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..892100e --- /dev/null +++ b/44500-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10285 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44500 *** + +_THE CONTEMPORARY SCIENCE SERIES._ + +EDITED BY HAVELOCK ELLIS. + +THE CRIMINAL. + + + + +_By the same Author._ + +THE NEW SPIRIT. + +LONDON: G. BELL & SONS. + + + + +[Illustration: _Frontispiece._] + + + + + THE CRIMINAL. + + BY HAVELOCK ELLIS. + + _ILLUSTRATED._ + + SCRIBNER & WELFORD, + 743 & 745 BROADWAY, + NEW YORK. + 1890. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + CHAPTER I. PAGE + INTRODUCTION 1 + + CHAPTER II. + THE STUDY OF THE CRIMINAL 26 + + CHAPTER III. + CRIMINAL ANTHROPOLOGY (PHYSICAL)-- + § 1. CRANIAL AND CEREBRAL CHARACTERISTICS 49 + § 2. THE FACE 63 + § 3. ANOMALIES OF THE HAIR 72 + § 4. CRIMINAL PHYSIOGNOMY 78 + § 5. THE BODY AND VISCERA 88 + § 6. HEREDITY 90 + § 7. TATTOOING 102 + § 8. MOTOR ACTIVITY 108 + § 9. PHYSICAL SENSIBILITY 112 + + CHAPTER IV. + CRIMINAL ANTHROPOLOGY (PSYCHICAL)-- + § 1. MORAL INSENSIBILITY 124 + § 2. INTELLIGENCE 133 + § 3. VANITY 139 + § 4. EMOTIONAL INSTABILITY 142 + § 5. SENTIMENT 152 + § 6. RELIGION 156 + § 7. THIEVES’ SLANG 161 + § 8. PRISON INSCRIPTIONS 169 + § 9. CRIMINAL LITERATURE AND ART 176 + § 10. CRIMINAL PHILOSOPHY 193 + + CHAPTER V. + THE RESULTS OF CRIMINAL ANTHROPOLOGY 202 + + CHAPTER VI. + THE TREATMENT OF THE CRIMINAL 233 + + CHAPTER VII. + CONCLUSIONS 283 + + APPENDIX-- + A. EXPLANATION OF PLATES 303 + B. THE CONGRESS OF CRIMINAL ANTHROPOLOGY AT PARIS 307 + C. THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF PENAL LAW 316 + D. SOME CASES OF CRIMINALITY 318 + E. ELMIRA 329 + + INDEX 335 + + + + +PREFACE. + + +This little book is an attempt to present to the English reader a critical +summary of the results of the science now commonly called criminal +anthropology. In other words, it deals briefly with the problems connected +with the criminal as he is in himself and as he becomes in contact with +society; it also tries to indicate some of the practical social bearings +of such studies. + +During the last fifteen years these studies have been carried on with +great activity. It seemed, therefore, that the time had come for a short +and comprehensive review of their present condition. Such a review of a +young and rapidly growing science cannot be expected to reveal any final +conclusions; yet by bringing together very various material from many +lands, it serves to show us how we stand, to indicate the progress already +made, and the nature of the path ahead. In these matters we in England +have of recent years fallen far behind; no book, scarcely a solitary +magazine article, dealing with this matter has appeared among us. It +seemed worth while to arouse interest in problems which are of personal +concern to every citizen, problems which are indeed the concern of every +person who cares about the reasonable organisation of social life. + +I would willingly have given the task to abler hands. But I found no one +in England who was acquainted with the present aspects of these questions, +and was compelled, therefore, after considerable hesitation, to undertake +a task which had long appealed to me from various sides, medical, +anthropological, and social. + +There is, I believe, nothing original in this book. It simply represents a +very large body of intelligent opinion in many countries. I have to +acknowledge with gratitude the assistance, always ungrudgingly rendered, +which I have received from very many directions. I would specially mention +those medical officers of prisons in Great Britain who answered my +Questions issued at the beginning of 1889, Dr. Hamilton Wey of the Elmira +Reformatory, Dr. Vans Clark, formerly Governor of Woking Prison, Professor +Lombroso of Turin, Dr. Antonio Marro, the Rev. J. W. Horsley, Dr. Langdon +Down, Dr. Hack Tuke, Dr. Francis Warner, etc. It would, however, be +impossible to enumerate all those to whom I am indebted. In such a task as +this the writer himself has the smallest part; the chief shares belong to +an innumerable company of workers, known and unknown. + +H. E. + + + + +THE CRIMINAL. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +INTRODUCTION. + + +Of criminals, actual or nominal, there are many kinds. It is necessary, +first of all, to enumerate the chief varieties. + +There is the _political criminal_. By this term is meant the victim of an +attempt by a more or less despotic Government to preserve its own +stability. The word “criminal” in this expression is usually a euphemism +to express the suppression of a small minority by the majority. The aims +of the “political criminal” may be anti-social, and in that case he is +simply an ordinary criminal, but he is not necessarily guilty of any +anti-social offence; he simply tries to overturn a certain political order +which may itself be anti-social. Consequently the “political criminal” of +our time or place may be the hero, martyr, saint, of another land or age. +The political criminal is, as Lombroso calls him, “the true precursor of +the progressive movement of humanity;” or, as Benedikt calls him, the +_homo nobilis_ of whom the highest type is Christ. From any scientific +point of view the use of the word crime, to express a difference of +national feeling or of political opinion, is an abuse of language. Such a +conception may be necessary to ensure the supremacy of a Government, just +as the conception of heresy is necessary to ensure the supremacy of a +Church; the prison for political dissentients corresponds to the stake for +religious dissentients. A criminality which is regulated partly by +chronology, partly by longitude, does not easily admit of scientific +discussion. + +We have, again, the _criminal by passion_. He is usually a man of +wholesome birth and of honest life, possessed of keen, even exaggerated +sensibilities, who, under the stress of some great, unmerited wrong, has +wrought justice for himself. Stung to sudden madness by some gross insult +to his wife or wrong to his daughter, he makes an attempt on the life of +the offender. The criminal by passion never becomes a recidivist; it is +the social, not the anti-social, instincts that are strong within him; his +crime is a solitary event in his life. Therefore he cannot figure as a +serious danger to society; in some respects he serves even to quicken the +social conscience and to check anti-social instincts. At the same time it +is not to the advantage of society that a private individual should in a +moment of passion even wreak justice; and the criminal by passion cannot +complain that he in his turn becomes the victim of a social reaction. + +We have also the _insane criminal_; that is to say, the person who, being +already in a condition of recognisable mental alienation, performs some +flagrantly anti-social act. A very large number of crimes are committed by +persons who are impelled by delusions, or who have, before the commission +of the crime, been in a condition of mental alienation. Nearly a hundred +persons every year in this country are sent to prison to be found insane +on admission. The hanging of persons who are afterwards generally regarded +as insane has always, and is still, frequently carried on. In Germany Dr. +Richter has shown that out of 144 lunatics who were, as was afterwards +shown, at the date of their crimes in the highest degree insane, only 38 +were recognised as insane before the judge--_i.e._, 106 madmen were, on +account of their madness, condemned to severe punishment. Out of 100 +insane persons brought to the bar of justice only 26 to 28 are recognised +as insane.[1] The insane criminal is clearly in a category of his own. He +is only a criminal in the same sense as an infant or an animal who +performs some noxious act. The lunatic may be influenced by the same +motives that influence the sane person, but he is at the same time +impelled by other motives peculiar to himself, and to which we may have no +means of access. To bring all the solemn formalities of law to bear +against a madman, and to condemn him to severe punishment, is in a +civilised country unreasonable. + +The political criminal may usually be recognised without difficulty when +we lay aside political prejudice; the criminal by passion can be +recognised at once when we know his history. There is not usually much +difficulty in ascertaining the insanity of the criminal who is insane in +the strict and perhaps the only legitimate sense of the word--_i.e._, +intellectually insane. But at this point we are no longer able to proceed +with quite the same clearness and certainty. We are approaching the +criminal in the proper sense, the criminal with whom we shall be chiefly +concerned. + +The uncertainty on this borderland may be illustrated by the following +case. W. T. is a boy of fifteen, a very small ugly-looking lad, with a +small head, low in the forehead, larger in the back, high narrow palate, +heavy sullen aspect, and slight external squint of left eye. His father +and mother are healthy and sober people; one of the father’s uncles died +in an asylum, and one of his aunts committed suicide. The boy had +convulsions at the age of eighteen months, and was very backward in +walking and speaking; at the age of twelve he could not dress himself. At +school he was very dull, apt to strike his companions if roused, solitary, +fond of reading, but not remembering what he had read. His schoolmaster, +an experienced teacher, had never known so peculiar a boy. But he was not +a bad or untruthful lad, and had no vices. When he left school his father +tried to teach him his own trade of shoemaking; but, though he had no +special distaste for the work, he could not learn even the most elementary +part of the trade. Other boys made fun of him, and he complained of his +little sister, ten years of age, doing the same. One day, when he had been +left quietly sitting alone with this sister, he took up his father’s +hammer, which was at his feet, and struck her, smashing in her skull. Then +he locked the back door, as he always did on leaving home, and went out, +closing the front door after him. He returned in an hour, wet from the +rain which had begun to fall. He was taken to prison, and from the first +displayed no emotion; he ate and slept well, and was a good, docile boy. +The judge who tried him (Lord Coleridge) was evidently in favour of a +verdict of manslaughter. The jury fell in with this suggestion, although +the authority of Dr. Savage was in favour of insanity, and the boy was +condemned to ten years’ penal servitude.[2] Such a case shows very well +the inaccuracy of our hard and fast lines of demarcation. Here was a +person clearly of abnormal or degenerate character, and liable to sudden +violent impulses; he would nowhere be popularly recognised as insane, and +possibly it is not desirable that he should be so recognised. On the other +hand, he cannot correctly be termed an instinctive criminal; he is on the +borderland between the two groups, and a touch may send him in either +direction. + +Let us take another illustration. Miss B., nineteen years of age, the +daughter of a captain in the army, is described as a tall robust-looking +girl of lively temperament. When a few months old she had an attack of +meningitis. As a child she was always wilful and troublesome. When she was +eighteen years old she developed new instincts of mischief. She would +sometimes take off her clothes, stuff them up the chimney, and set fire to +them. When the servants rushed in she would be sitting on the hearth +clapping her hands: “What a fine blaze!” She had frequently destroyed +furniture, clothing, and books; she liked to cut carefully the strings +binding a book, so that it would fall to pieces in the hands of the +unsuspecting person who took it up. She drenched a baby, and frequently +her own room, with water, without any reason. She once attempted to +throttle the attendant in whose care she was put. She was backward for her +age, though her education had not been neglected; she could not keep +accounts, and was fond of reading children’s books. There was a history of +bad sexual habits, and she had a propensity to fall in love with every man +she saw. She was perfectly coherent and rational, and accused others of +doing the mischievous acts attributed to her. After being sent to a +clergyman’s house for some months she eventually recovered.[3] Here there +was, strictly speaking, no insanity; there were vicious and criminal +instincts which would no doubt have developed had the girl been sent to +prison instead of to a comfortable home, and there was (as there very +frequently is among instinctive criminals) a history of brain mischief. +How shall we classify her? + +Let us take another example--this time from France--in which the +pathological element does not clearly appear. A gentleman named X., the +French paper informs us, has been passing the summer at his country house +with his daughter, aged twenty-two, and his son, aged twenty. From the +moment of his arrival devastations occurred everywhere on his property. +The shrubs were cut; garden plants and large branches of the birch trees +removed; the doors and walls of the house were soiled. The grounds and +dwellings of other persons in the neighbourhood were similarly treated. +Windows were broken; the emblems of religion were outrageously insulted; +the walls and doors of the church, the priest’s house, and even the altar, +were soiled with ordure. A drawing of the priest administering the +sacrament to a cow was found on the walls, and obscene letters, +containing also menaces of death and incendiarism, were received by M. X., +the priest, and others. Terror overspread the parish, and no one dared to +go out by night. At last M. X.’s son and daughter were discovered in the +act. Alexis, the least guilty, having been drawn on by his sister, +confessed his part in what had been done; he was the accomplice and +confidant of his sister. She denied everything, even that she had aided +her brother. There was no motive for these acts, save the pleasure of +spreading terror through the country; they had had no intention of +accomplishing their threats. The girl carried her impudence and imprudence +so far as to send an insulting letter to the magistrate who was +investigating her misdeeds, and to break windows, unperceived, in his +presence.[4] This is an example of moral perversity, showing itself in +malevolent and unsocial acts. Possibly, if we possessed a scientific +history of the case, we might find a pathological element in it, but as it +stands it is but an extravagant example of anti-social instincts, on the +borderland of crime, which in a minor degree are far from uncommon. + +I will now give, in some detail, the history of a more decisive and +significant example of this same moral insensibility. It is in a child, +and I take it from German records. Marie Schneider, a school-girl, twelve +years of age, was brought before the Berlin Criminal Court in 1886. She +was well developed for her age, of ordinary facial expression, not pretty, +nor yet ugly. Her head was round, the forehead receding slightly, the nose +rather small, the eyes brown and lively, the smooth, rather fair hair +combed back. With an intellectual clearness and precision very remarkable +for her age, she answered all the searching questions put by the President +of the Court without hesitation or shrinking. There was not the slightest +trace of any inner emotion or deep excitement. She spoke in the same quiet +equable tone in which a school-girl speaks to her teacher or repeats her +lesson. And when the questions put to her became of so serious a character +that the judge himself involuntarily altered his voice and tone, the +little girl still remained self-possessed, lucid, childlike. She was by no +means bold, but she knew that she had to answer as when her teacher spoke +to her, and what she said bore the impress of perfect truth, and agreed at +every point with the evidence already placed before the court. Her +statement was substantially as follows:--“My name is Marie Schneider. I +was born on the 1st of May 1874, in Berlin. My father died long ago, I do +not know when; I never knew him. My mother is still living; she is a +machinist. I also have a younger brother. I lost a sister a year ago. I +did not much like her, because she was better than I, and my mother +treated her better. My mother has several times whipped me for +naughtiness, and it is right that I should take away the stick with which +she beat me, and to beat her. I have gone to school since I was six years +old. I have been in the third class for two years. I stayed there from +idleness. I have been taught reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, and +history, and also religion. I know the ten commandments. I know the sixth: +it is, ‘Thou shalt not kill.’ I have some playfellows at school and in the +neighbourhood, and I am often with a young lady [believed to be of immoral +life] who is twenty years old and lives in the same house. She has told +me about her childhood, and that she was just as naughty as I am, and that +she struck the teacher who was going to punish her. Some time ago, in +playing in the yard, I came behind a child, held his eyes, and asked him +who I was. I pressed my thumbs deep in his eyes, so that he cried out and +had inflamed eyes. I knew that I hurt him, and, in spite of his crying, I +did not let go until I was made to. It did not give me special pleasure, +but I have not felt sorry. When I was a little child I have stuck forks in +the eyes of rabbits, and afterwards slit open the belly. At least so my +mother has often said; I do not remember it. I know that Conrad murdered +his wife and children, and that his head was cut off. I have heard my aunt +read the newspapers. I am very fond of sweets, and have several times +tried to get money to buy myself sweets. I told people the money was for +some one else who had no small change. I know that that was deceit. I know +too what theft is. Any one who kills is a murderer, and I am a murderess. +Murder is punished with death; the murderer is executed; his head is cut +off. My head will not be cut off, because I am still too young. On the 7th +of July my mother sent me on an errand. Then I met little Margarete +Dietrich, who was three and a half years old, and whom I had known since +March. I said to her that she must come with me, and I took her hand. I +wanted to take away her ear-rings. They were little gold ear-rings with a +coloured stone. I did not want the ear-rings for myself, but to sell at a +second-hand shop in the neighbourhood, to get money to buy some cakes. +When I reached the yard I wanted to go somewhere, and I called to my +mother to throw me down the key. She did so, and threw me down some money +too, for the errand that I was to go on. I left little Margarete on the +stairs, and there I found her again. From the yard I saw that the +second-floor window was half open. I went with her up the stairs to the +second floor to take away the ear-rings, and then to throw her out of the +window. I wanted to kill her, because I was afraid that she would betray +me. She could not talk very well, but she could point to me; and if it +came out, my mother would have beaten me. I went with her to the window, +opened it wide, and set her on the ledge. Then I heard some one coming +down. I quickly put the child on the ground and shut the window. The man +went by without noticing us. Then I opened the window and put the child on +the ledge, with her feet hanging out, and her face turned away from me. I +did that because I did not want to look in her face, and because I could +push her easier. I pulled the ear-rings out. Grete began to cry because I +hurt her. When I threatened to throw her out of the window she became +quiet. I took the ear-rings and put them in my pocket. Then I gave the +child a shove, and heard her strike the lamp and then the pavement. Then I +quickly ran downstairs to go on the errand my mother had sent me. I knew +that I should kill the child. I did not reflect that little Grete’s +parents would be sorry. It did not hurt me; I was not sorry; I was not +sorry all the time I was in prison; I am not sorry now. The next day a +policeman came to us and asked if I had thrown the child out of the +window. I said no, I knew nothing about it. Then I threw away the +ear-rings that I had kept hid; I was afraid they would search my pockets +and find them. Then there came another policeman, and I told him the +truth, because he said he would box my ears if I did not tell the truth. +Then I was taken away, and had to tell people how it happened. I was taken +in a cab to the mortuary. I ate a piece of bread they gave me with a good +appetite. I saw little Grete’s body, undressed, on a bed. I did not feel +any pain and was not sorry. They put me with four women, and I told them +the story. I laughed while I was telling it because they asked me such +curious questions. I wrote to my mother from prison, and asked her to send +me some money to buy some dripping, for we had dry bread.” That was what +little Marie Schneider told the judge, without either hesitation or +impudence, in a completely childlike manner, like a school-girl at +examination; and she seemed to find a certain satisfaction in being able +to answer long questions so nicely. Only once her eyes gleamed, and that +was when she told how in the prison they had given her dry bread to eat. +The medical officer of the prison, who had watched her carefully, declared +that he could find nothing intellectually wrong in her. She was +intelligent beyond her years, but had no sense of what she had done, and +was morally an idiot. And this was the opinion of the other medical men +who were called to examine her. The Court, bearing in mind that she was +perfectly able to understand the nature of the action she had committed, +condemned Marie Schneider to imprisonment for eight years. The question of +heredity was not raised. Nothing is known of the father except that he is +dead.[5] + +Marie Schneider differs from the previous cases, not merely by her +apparent freedom from pathological elements, but by her rational motives +and her intelligence. The young French woman intended nothing very serious +by her brutal and unfeeling practical jokes. Marie Schneider was as +thorough and as relentless in the satisfaction of her personal desires as +the Marquise de Brinvilliers. But she was a child, and she would very +generally be described as an example of “moral insanity.” It is still +necessary to take a further step, although a very slight one, to reach +what every one would be willing to accept as an instinctive criminal. The +example I will select is an Englishman, Thomas Wainewright, well known in +his time as an essayist, much better known as a forger and a murderer. R. +Griffiths, L.L.D., Wainewright’s maternal grandfather--to take his history +as far back as possible--was an energetic literary man and journalist, +whose daughter, Ann, born of a young second wife when he was well past +middle life, “is supposed to have understood the writings of Mr. Locke as +well as perhaps any person of either sex now living” (said the +_Gentleman’s Magazine_) and who married one Thomas Wainewright, and died +in child-bed at the age of twenty-one, the last survivor, even at that +age, of the second family. Thomas Wainewright, the father, himself died +very soon afterwards. Of him nothing is known, though there is some reason +to think that Dr. Griffiths regarded him with dislike or suspicion. + +The child seems then to have been born of a failing and degenerating +stock. He was clever, possessed of some means, and grew up in a literary +and artistic circle; but he was vain and unstable, “ever to be wiled +away,” as he says himself, “by new and flashy gauds.” When still a lad, he +went into the army for a time. Then, after a while, being idle in town, +“my blessed Art touched her renegade; by her pure and high influences the +noisome mists were purged,” and he wept tears of happiness and gratitude +over Wordsworth’s poems. “But this serene state was broken,” he wrote, +several years before his career of crime had commenced, “like a vessel of +clay, by acute disease, succeeded by a relaxation of the muscles and +nerves, which depressed me + + --‘low + As through the abysses of a joyless heart + The heaviest plummet of despair could go,’-- + +hypochondriasis! ever shuddering on the horrible abyss of mere insanity! +But two excellent secondary agents--a kind and skilful physician, and a +most delicately affectionate and unwearied (though young and fragile) +nurse--brought me at length out of those dead black waters, nearly +exhausted with so sore a struggle. Steady pursuit was debarred me, and +varied amusement deemed essential to my complete revivification.” Then he +began to write his essays and criticisms, dealing chiefly with the later +Italian and the French artists, under the name of Janus Weathercock. He +was a man of many sentimentalities and super-refinements; he hated all +vulgarity and “sordid instincts.” His tastes were sensual in every +respect. Notwithstanding his means, they were not sufficient to satisfy +his desires for luxurious foods and drinks, for fine perfumes, for large +jewels to wear. He could not live without luxuries, just as little Marie +Schneider could not live without sweets. At about the date that his chief +literary activities ceased, and when he was about thirty years of age, he +forged a power of attorney with the names of his trustees, assigning to +himself the principal of £5000, of which he was enjoying the interest. +This was then a capital offence; it remained undetected for twelve years. +He is described at this time as “a smart, lively, clever, heartless, +voluptuous coxcomb.” He was tall, stooping slightly, of dark hair and +complexion, deeply set eyes, stealthy but fascinating, a large and massive +head. He married a young lady who was poor, but a gay and brilliant +person, and she had a widowed mother and two half-sisters. The young +couple lived improvidently, and an uncle, Mr. G. E. Griffiths, who was +well off, offered them a home in his own house. This welcome offer was +accepted. A year after, Mr. G. E. Griffiths, after a short illness, died +very unexpectedly, leaving his mansion and property to his nephew and +niece. This money, however, also went rather fast; and now too there were +no longer any expectations from relatives. The stepmother and her +daughters, the Abercrombies, were poor, and their schemes to make a living +were not successful. The Abercrombies were obliged to come and live with +the Wainewrights in the large mansion they had inherited, and a very few +months after this Mrs. Abercrombie died, like old Mr. Griffiths, very +suddenly, in a fit of convulsions. No benefits, however, followed this +death; affairs continued to grow worse, and soon the bailiffs were in the +house, and there was a bill of sale on the furniture. The Wainewrights and +Abercrombies migrated to handsome lodgings in Conduit Street, near Regent +Street. They frequently went to the play, and one night, very soon after +their arrival, Helen Abercrombie, who wore the thin shoes that women then +always wore, got her feet wet, became ill, and was assiduously attended by +Wainewright and his wife, who held frequent consultations as to her +treatment by means of certain powders; in a few days she was dead, with +the same symptoms as her mother, the same symptoms as Mr. +Griffiths--“brain mischief,” the doctor called it. She died on the very +day on which the bill of sale became due, and after her death it was found +that her life had, during the same year, been insured, in various offices, +for £18,000. Helen Abercrombie was a beautiful and very healthy girl, and +her death led to suspicions, and gave rise to law-suits, which on the +slighter but definite ground of misrepresentation were in favour of the +companies. In the meanwhile Wainewright found it convenient to leave +England (he had separated from his wife after the death of Helen +Abercrombie), and took refuge with a rather impecunious gentleman who +lived with his daughter at Boulogne. He persuaded this gentleman to obtain +money to effect a loan by insuring his life. One night, after the policy +had been effected, this gentleman suddenly died. We next hear of +Wainewright travelling in France, doubtless for excellent reasons, under +an assumed name. He fell into the hands of the police, and not being able +to give a good account of himself, was imprisoned for six months. The +French police found that he carried about with him a certain powder, at +that time little known, called strychnine; this was put down to English +eccentricity. At this time there was a warrant out against Wainewright for +forgery; he was lured over to England by a detective, with the aid of a +woman, and arrested. He was tried for forgery, and condemned to +transportation for life. At the same time the suspicions of the doctor +who attended Helen Abercrombie were roused, and Wainewright himself, after +his condemnation, admitted to visitors, with extraordinary vanity and +audacity, his achievements in poisoning, and elucidated his methods. It is +also said that he kept a diary in which he recorded his operations with +much complacency. The one thing that hurt little Marie Schneider was the +dry bread; the one thing that moved Wainewright was being placed in irons +in the hold of the ship. “They think me a desperado! Me! the companion of +poets, philosophers, artists, and musicians, a desperado! You will smile +at this--no, I think you will feel for the man, educated and reared as a +gentleman; now the mate of vulgar ruffians and country bumpkins.” At +Hobart Town on two occasions he endeavoured to remove by poison persons +who had excited his animosity. He is described at this time by one who +knew him well as “a man with a massive head, in which the animal +propensities were largely developed. His eyes were deeply set in his head; +he had a square solid jaw; he wore his hair long, stooped somewhat, and +had a snake-like expression which was at once repulsive and fascinating. +He rarely looked you in the face. His conversation and manner were winning +in the extreme; he was never intemperate, but nevertheless of grossly +sensual habits, and an opium-eater. As to moral character, he was a man of +the very lowest stamp. He seemed to be possessed by an ingrained malignity +of disposition which kept him constantly on the very confines of murder, +and he took a perverse pleasure in traducing persons who had befriended +him. He was a marked man in Hobart Town--dreaded, disliked, and shunned +by everybody. His sole living companion was a cat, for which he evinced an +extraordinary affection.” He died of apoplexy in 1852, at the age of +fifty-eight.[6] Wainewright presents to us a perfect picture of the +instinctive criminal in his most highly developed shape, fortunately a +rare phenomenon. It is this instinctive propensity to crime which is +sometimes called “moral insanity.” This is, however, by no means a happy +phrase, since it leads to much fruitless disputation. It is wiser at +present to apply to such an individual the more simple term, _instinctive +criminal_.[7] There is, however, distinct interest in noting that at one +period of his life Wainewright was on the verge of insanity, if not, as is +more likely, actually insane; it is extremely probable that he never +recovered from the effects of that illness. It may well be that if we +possessed a full knowledge of every instinctive criminal we should always +be able to put our hands on some definite organically morbid spot. + +The instinctive criminal, in his fully developed form, is a moral monster. +In him the absence of guiding or inhibiting social instincts is +accompanied by unusual development of the sensual and self-seeking +impulses. The _occasional criminal_, as he is usually called, is a much +commoner and more normally constituted person. In him the sensual +instincts need not be stronger than usual, and the social elements, though +weaker than usual, need not be absent. Weakness is the chief +characteristic of the occasional criminal; when circumstances are not +quite favourable he succumbs to temptation. Occasional crime is one of the +commonest forms of crime; it is also that for whose existence and +development society is most directly responsible; very often it might +equally well be called social crime. Here is an example. Two lads of +honest life, the sons of agricultural labourers, being unable to obtain a +scanty subsistence at home, start one day in a fit of desperation for a +distant town in search of work. Without food or shelter, sleeping under a +hedge, they reach a farm-house. Looking through a window they see a +plum-pudding; they open the window, seize the pudding, and go a few yards +off to devour it. In a few hours they are on the way to the lock-up, to +receive, later on, a sentence of six months’ imprisonment. “At the close +of it they were provided with an outfit and an introduction to an employer +of labour in Canada; and when we last heard of them they were doing +extremely well, with excellent prospects before them.”[8] This sequel +(which would have been better had it come before the seizure of the +plum-pudding) proves that we are not dealing with instinctive criminals. +Take another case mentioned by the same writer. A woman with a drunken +husband who spends his last penny in the public-house, is driven by actual +starvation to commit her first crime. She steals a small piece of meat to +feed her hungry children. She is sent to prison. “We heard of her +afterwards leading a most consistent and almost saintly life.” These +persons, it is clear, were not the criminals but the victims; society was +the criminal. Now and then, as in the cases just cited, it happens that +the occasional criminal who is thus recklessly flung into prison is +assisted to live a human life. In the great majority of cases he is ruined +for life, familiarised with the prison, introduced to bad company. We +have, as well as we are able, manufactured him into what is called the +_habitual criminal_. + +The steps by which the occasional criminal, aided on the one hand by +neglect, on the other by the hot-bed of the prison, develops into the +habitual criminal are slow and subtle; that is one of the tragedies of +life. M. Joly has recorded the experiences of the police concerning the +thefts that take place at the great Parisian shops, the Louvre, and the +Bon-Marché. “This is the beginning. From a gallery one sees a woman--rich +or well-to-do-who buys a certain number of objects and pays for them; but +without asking permission she takes some little, almost insignificant +object--a little ribbon to fasten a parcel, a more commodious paper-bag. +No one will say that she is stealing; no one will think of speaking to her +or disturbing her. But she is observed and even watched, for one expects +to see her again some time after taking, as she walks along, say, a flower +worth twenty-five centimes. A little later she will appropriate an article +of greater value, and henceforth she will take for the pleasure of taking. +The inclination, which at the beginning had in it nothing instinctive or +fatal, will grow as all habits grow. Another time a woman who had no +intention of stealing, but whose conscience is probably elastic, grows +impatient at the delay in attending to her wants. It is, let us suppose, a +purse worth ninety-five centimes, and the shopman is busy with purchasers +of more expensive objects. Suddenly the woman nervously yields to a swift +temptation; she does not wish to wait longer, but instead of replacing the +purse on the counter she slips it into her pocket and turns on her heels +without paying. ‘From that moment,’ said the inspector, ‘_she is lost_; +she will come back to steal, but she will steal intentionally and +deliberately.’”[9] + +The world and the criminal’s friends are startled some day by a great +crime, but that crime is linked on to a chain of slight, occasional, +sporadic vices and offences. Sometimes we can trace out these links. Barré +and Lebiez were two young French criminals who attracted attention some +years ago. They were both of good family, both very intelligent, the +former about to enter on a commercial life, the latter on the eve of +becoming a doctor of medicine. At this point they murdered an old woman to +rob her, and cut up the body to dispose of it. The crime was deliberate +and carefully prepared; there was nothing romantic or obviously morbid +about it, and a few days after the crime Lebiez delivered an able and +eloquent lecture on Darwinism and the Church. In each of these young men +there were, M. Joly observes, nine stages in the path of crime. Let us +first note those of Barré:--1. His employer is obliged to dismiss him on +account of misconduct with a servant girl. 2. He writes untruthful letters +to his family, describing habits of work which do not exist. 3. He +acquires an extravagant taste for speculation on the Stock Exchange. So +far his course, though not exemplary, was one that has often enough been +traversed by persons who have never reached the scaffold. 4. He +speculates with the savings which two girls had entrusted to him for +investment. 5. To obtain money from his father, to whom he talks of +establishing himself, he forges letters. 6. He embezzles various sums of +money by an aggravated form of the same process. 7. He steals a watch from +a prostitute’s rooms. 8. He steals eight francs from the same. 9. He +decides on the murder of the old milk-woman with whom he has had business +relations, and whose savings, as he knows, are considerable. Lebiez went +through the following stages:--1. His violent language to his mother is +remarked. 2. He is, notwithstanding very small means, known to be living +with a mistress, and he procures obscene photographs. 3. On account of +irregularity he is sent away from an institution where he gave lessons. 4. +He speculates on the Stock Exchange, which, being poor, he could only do +by accepting profit and refusing to meet loss. 5. He steals books from his +friends and sells them. 6. He several times leaves his lodgings +clandestinely, without paying the rent. 7. He participates in the theft of +the watch by Barré. 8. He shares the profits of the second theft. 9. They +decide on the murder together. Such are the slow steps by which the +occasional criminal becomes the _habitual criminal_ or the _professional +criminal_. It must be remembered that the lines which separate these from +each other, and both from the instinctive criminal, are often faint or +imperceptible. “Natural groups,” as Mr. Galton remarks, “have nuclei but +no outlines.” In the habitual criminal, who is usually unintelligent, the +conservative forces of habit predominate; the professional criminal, who +is usually intelligent, is guided by rational motives, and voluntarily +takes the chances of his mode of life; while in the instinctive criminal +the impulses usually appear so strong, and the moral element so +conspicuously absent, that we feel we are in the presence of a natural +monster. It is not, however, always possible to make these distinctions. + +The professional criminal, though not of modern development, adapts +himself to modern conditions. In intelligence, and in anthropological rank +generally, he represents the criminal aristocracy. He has deliberately +chosen a certain method of earning his living. It is a profession which +requires great skill, and in which, though the risks are great, the prizes +are equally great.[10] + +Lacenaire, a famous criminal of the beginning of the century, has +sometimes been regarded as the type of the professional criminal, and to +complete this classificatory outline it may be well to sketch his career. +He was born at Lyons about the beginning of the century, received a good +average education, and was very intelligent, though not distinguishing +himself at college. He was ambitious and, at the same time, incapable of +sustained work. He came to Paris to study law; but his father’s resources +were inadequate, and he became a clerk, frequently changing his situation, +growing tired of work at length, and engaging as a soldier. So far no +offence is recorded. When he returned to France his father, become +bankrupt, had fled. Some friends came to the young man’s help, and gave +him 500 francs. He hastened to Paris and spent it in enjoyment. Then he +entered the literary Bohemia, and wrote verses and political articles, +fighting a duel with a nephew of Benjamin Constant and killing him. He +said, later on, that the sight of his victim’s agony had caused him no +emotion. Soon his love of enjoyment outran his means of getting money, +though these might have been considerable had he cared to work steadily, +and he obtained money by theft and swindling. Condemned to prison, he soon +formed connections with professional criminals, and associated them in his +schemes and joined them in their orgies. He adopted false names, +multiplied forgeries and disguises, and preyed actively on society. After +an orgy at this time he committed a murder, and he attempted to murder a +man who had won a large sum from him in gambling. The crime and the +attempt both remained unpunished. Gifted with intelligence, and still more +with vanity and audacity, Lacenaire continued his career of systematic +crime until finally he met the guillotine. He was a professional criminal, +but also, it will be seen, he was something of an habitual, something of +an instinctive criminal.[11] + +We have glanced briefly at the circles of crime--circles that extend from +heaven to very murky depths of hell, and that yet are not far from any one +of us. It is still necessary to touch on the various ways in which the +causes and nature of this vast field of crime may be approached. + +There are, first, the _cosmic_ causes of crime; that is to say, all the +influences of the external inorganic world, the influence of temperature +on crime, the increase of crimes of violence in hot weather, the +periodicity of other kinds of crime, the influence of climate, the +influence of diet. + +Then there is the _biological_ factor. Under this head we include the +consideration of all the personal peculiarities of the individual, +anatomical, physiological, psychological. These peculiarities may be +atavistic, atypic, or morbid. + +Lastly, there is the _social_ factor in crime. Criminal sociology deals +with the production of crime by social influences, and by economic +perturbations. Infanticide is nearly always related to the social factor; +and the study of the various social influences which promote or hinder +infanticide is extremely instructive. The relations between crimes against +the person and the price of alcohol, and between crimes against property +and the price of wheat, also belong to this department of the study of +crime. Society prepares crimes, as Quetelet said; the criminal is the +instrument that executes them. “The social environment,” Lacassagne has +well said, “is the cultivation medium of criminality; the criminal is the +microbe, an element which only becomes important when it finds the medium +which causes it to ferment: _every society has the criminals that it +deserves_.” + +It is impossible to over-estimate the importance of the social factor in +crime. To some extent it even embraces the others, and can be made to +regulate and neutralise them. But we cannot deal wisely with the social +factor of crime, nor estimate the vast importance of social influences in +the production or prevention of crime, unless we know something of the +biology of crime, of the criminal’s anatomical, physiological, and +psychological nature. This book is concerned with the study of the +criminal man. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE STUDY OF THE CRIMINAL. + + +When Homer described Thersites as ugly and deformed, with harsh or scanty +hair, and a pointed head, like a pot that had collapsed to a peak in the +baking-- + + ἄισχιστος δὲ ἀνὴρ ὑπὸ Ἴλιον ἦλθεν. + φολκὸς ἔην, χωλὸς δ’ ἕτερον πόδα. τὼ δέ οἱ ὤμω + κυρτώ, ἐπὶ στῆθος συνοχωκότε. αὐτὰρ ὕπερθεν + φοζὸς ἔην κεφαλὴν, ψεδνὴ δ’ ἐπενήνοθε λάχνη + +--he furnished evidence as to the existence of a criminal type of man. +These physical characters of Thersites are among those which in these last +days have been submitted to scientific observation, and to statistics, and +have been largely justified. The epigrammatic utterances in which +primitive peoples crystallise and pass on their philosophy and science, +include many sayings which prove the remote period at which men began to +perceive the organic peculiarities which separate the criminal man from +the average man. There are some proverbs of this character, such as those +indicating the widespread dislike of the red-haired, for which no solid +justification has yet been found; but among various races, and in many +countries, numerous proverbs are in harmony with the results of modern +research: _A vultu vitium_, the old Roman saying; _Au vis_ [_visage_] _le +vice_, the old French saying; “Salute from afar the beardless man and the +bearded woman;” “Distrust the woman with a man’s voice;” “A pale face is +worse than the itch.” Such are a few that might be easily increased. + +At a very early period such popular generalisations as these were embodied +in that empirical science of physiognomy, which found many professors +among the Greeks and Romans. According to the well-known story, a Greek +physiognomist who examined Socrates’ face judged that the philosopher was +brutal, sensuous, and inclined to drunkenness; and Socrates declared to +his disciples that such, although he had overcome it, was his natural +disposition. He was himself a physiognomist; he disliked a certain man who +was of pale and dark complexion, such signs, he said, indicating envy and +murder; the peculiar dark and pallid complexion of the instinctive +criminal has of late years been frequently noted. + +Aristotle, that great master of all the sciences, clearly recognised not +merely the physiognomic signs of habits, vices, and crimes, including many +signs that are in accordance with modern scientific observation, but he +also observed a connection between the shape of the head and the mental +disposition, and he recognised the hereditary character of vicious and +criminal instincts. Galen, who inaugurated the experimental study of the +brain, adopted the views of Aristotle, and pointed out the influence of +the abuse of alcohol in the production of crime; he was of opinion, also, +anticipating a modern doctrine, that when the criminal is a criminal by +nature he ought to be destroyed, not in revenge, but for the same reason +that scorpions and vipers are destroyed.[12] + +Although these feeble beginnings of criminal anthropology received the +sanction of the highest scientific authorities, as well as of the people, +and later on a mediæval law declared that if two persons fell under +suspicion of crime the uglier or more deformed was to be regarded as more +probably guilty, they were not universally admitted, and some, like Pliny, +regarded it as absurd that the outward form could indicate the inward +disposition. Whatever art or science there was in the matter was left, +then and long after, to the physiognomists, of whom Polemon may be taken +as a distinguished example, and these were ready to supply the most +elaborate physical signs to correspond to any vicious or criminal +disposition. Polemon wrote of the criminal that he was of pallid +complexion, with long hair, large ears, and small eyes, and he proceeded +to give the characteristics of various classes of criminals, his +observations often showing keen insight. This pseudo-science was passed on +from physiognomist to physiognomist, usually with added absurdities, until +in the sixteenth century we reach the Neapolitan Dalla Porta, at once the +greatest (and except Lavater the last) of the physiognomists of the old +school and the first of the new. He treated judicial astrology with +contempt, and at the same time wrote a treatise of celestial physiognomy; +he gathered up all that his predecessors had done, and at the same time +laid the foundations of a more scientific treatment. + +Passing by Lavater, with his fine intuition and genial humanity, which +formed, however, no epoch in the scientific study of criminal +anthropology, at the beginning of the present century we reach Gall, a +very great figure in the history of science, and the representative of the +most important moment in the development of our knowledge of the brain. + +Before speaking of Gall, however, it is necessary to give a word, in +passing, to Grohmann, who slightly preceded him, and who anticipated many +of the conclusions relative to facial and cranial characteristics reached +by modern criminal anthropologists. Thus, in 1820, he wrote:--“I have +often been impressed in criminals, and especially in those of defective +development, by the prominent ears, the shape of the cranium, the +projecting cheek-bones, the large lower jaws, the deeply-placed eyes, the +shifty, animal-like gaze.” + +Gall thrust aside for ever the credulous fancies of the physiognomists; +and he has been described, not altogether without reason, as the founder +of the modern science of criminal anthropology. He was certainly its most +brilliant pioneer. Lavater believed in the homogeneity of the human +organism, but he was not a man of science, and he had been content to +study the surface of the body; Gall, with true scientific instinct, tried +to get to the root of the matter; following the great English anatomist, +Willis, who had made some attempt at cerebral localisation, he studied +the brain, sought to differentiate the functions of its various parts, and +the effects of its varying development on the skull. + +For Gall the varying development of the brain was the cause of the +divergent mental and moral qualities of the individual; he was firmly +convinced that all the facts of psychical life are rooted in the physical +organisation; he wished to write the natural history of every primitive +moral and intellectual force, in health as well as in disease. To the best +of his ability he carried out this programme in detail, by an unceasing +study of all the varieties of the brain and of the living head that he +could find; he pursued his studies throughout Europe, in lunatic asylums +and in prisons, as well as among the ordinary population, and he foresaw +the extent of the applications of the science he was opening up to +medicine and to law, to morality and to education. While his work extended +far beyond the borders of what we should now call criminal +anthropology,[13] he devoted much attention to the problems of the +criminal organisation, and even to its varieties, many of his observations +according well with the results of recent investigation. More than this, +following Galen and Diderot (who had written, fifty years earlier, “The +evil-doer is one whom we must destroy, not punish”), he clearly advocated +a method of dealing with the criminal which is now widely regarded as the +only right and reasonable method. “There can be no question,” he said, “of +culpability or of justice in the severe sense; the question is of the +necessity of society preventing crime. The measure of culpability and the +measure of punishment cannot be determined by a study of the illegal act, +but only by a study of the individual committing it.” In his great work, +_Les Fonctions du Cerveau_ (1822), Gall has summed up his conclusions. + +It has been the misfortune of this great and truly scientific investigator +to give origin to an empiric art of phrenology which took the place of the +old art of physiognomy he had done so much to destroy. He has +consequently, until recent years, been popularly known chiefly by his +mistakes, especially perhaps by his localisation of the sexual instinct in +the cerebellum--a localisation, however, which he supported by a large +body of evidence. The influence of dubious phrenological doctrines +hardened into a system somewhat impairs the value of Lauvergne’s _Les +Forçats_ (1841), which seems to have been the first book of any importance +devoted entirely to the study of convict nature, physical, moral, and +intellectual. Lauvergne, who was the chief medical officer to the hospital +for convicts at Toulon, appears to have been a man of humanitarian +instincts, whose wit and _bonhomie_ enabled him to maintain friendly +relations with the criminals he was studying; he had little capacity for +scientific analysis, but he wrote fully of what he had seen and known, and +his book contains many keen observations which have been since verified. +He fully recognises also the importance of the social factor in the +production of criminals. + +Lauvergne had observed how many of his subjects were insane or diseased; +the students of the criminal who followed him all insisted on the +pathological element. Dally maintained that the criminal and the lunatic +are identical, and both equally irresponsible. Prosper Lucas, in his +valuable _Traité philosophique de l’hérédite_ (1847), showed how deeply +rooted in the organism are the morbid tendencies of crime. Lélut compared +the length and breadth of head in criminals. Voisin noted their defects in +cerebral organisation. It was, however, Morel who, in his _Des +Dégénérescences_ (1857), chiefly developed this aspect of criminality, and +his influence is still strong among French students of the criminal. Morel +regarded crime as one of the forms taken on by degeneration in the +individual or the family; and degeneration he defined as “a morbid +deviation from the normal type of humanity.” The causes of degeneration +which he recognised were intoxications, famines, social environment, +industries, unhealthy occupations, poverty, heredity, pathological +transformations, moral causes. “My principal aim,” he says, “has been the +study of these causes, and of the influences which they exercise, firstly +on the constitution of individuals, and afterwards on that of their +descendants.” Among these causes he gives a chief place to the manifold +effects on the children of alcoholism in the parents. In his pamphlet _De +la Formation du Type dans les variétés dégénérés_ (1864), Morel proposed +to give the name of morbid anthropology to “that part of the natural +science of man, the aim of which is to study the characters due to certain +special diseased influences, as well as to hereditary transmissions of +bad nature.” + +Despine, by his great work, _Psychologie Naturelle_ (1868), made a new and +important step in criminology. Leaving aside the study of the criminal’s +physical nature, he sought to make an exhaustive study of his mental +nature. No one has done more than Despine to prove that what we should now +call the instinctive criminal is, on the psychological side, a natural +anomaly, a mental monstrosity. He brought into clear relief the +unforeseeing imprudence, the entire lack of moral sensibility and of +remorse, which characterise the instinctive criminal. He recognised that +the criminal is not necessarily an insane or diseased person, and he +showed that his abnormality is not of the kind that intellectual education +can remedy. “No physiologist,” he said, “has yet occupied himself with the +insanity of the sane;” he considered the criminal as “morally mad,” and +therefore irresponsible. Maudsley, from an opposite philosophic +standpoint, came to very similar conclusions. Without bringing any fresh +contribution of importance, he re-affirmed emphatically the conclusions +already reached. Speaking in his _Responsibility in Mental Disease_ (1872) +of instinctive criminals, he remarks, “It is a matter of observation that +this criminal class constitutes a degenerate or morbid variety of mankind, +marked by peculiarly low physical and mental characteristics.” Like +Despine, he drew from this the conclusion, since widely accepted, that the +criminal, being morally insane and usually incurable, should be treated in +the same way as the intellectually insane person. “If the matter be +considered deeply, it may appear that it would, perhaps, in the end make +little difference whether the offender were sentenced in anger and sent +to the seclusion of prison, or were sentenced more in sorrow than in +anger, and consigned to the same sort of seclusion under the name of an +asylum. The change would probably not lead to an increase or to a decrease +in the number of crimes committed in a year.” An artist as much as a man +of science, master of a sombre and weighty style, illumined by vivid +flashes of imagination, Maudsley by his numerous works popularised the new +ideas, and is justly regarded abroad as a pioneer of criminal +anthropology. + +Broca, who, by initiating the Anthropological Society of Paris in 1859, +has been regarded as the founder of the modern science of anthropology, +gave attention also to the special science of criminal anthropology by +noting the peculiarities of the skulls and brains of criminals. At the +Exeter meeting of the British Association in 1869, Dr. G. Wilson read a +paper on “The Moral Imbecility of Habitual Criminals as exemplified by +cranial measurements.” He had measured 464 heads of criminals, and found +that habitual thieves presented well-marked signs of insufficient cranial +development, specially anteriorly. “The cranial deficiency,” he observed, +“is associated with real physical deterioration. Forty per cent. of all +the convicts are invalids, more or less; and that percentage is largely +increased in the professional thief class.” He argued that a prisoner must +be treated on reforming principles, and not allowed unrestricted liberty +until there was reasonable evidence to show that he would not prove +dangerous to society. About the same time, also (in 1870), J. Bruce +Thomson, Resident-Surgeon to the General Prison for Scotland at Perth, +published in the _Journal of Mental Science_ a summary of his observations +on over 5000 prisoners. From the decisiveness of his utterances and the +large number of prisoners of whom he was able to speak, this summary gave +a stimulus to the study of the criminal throughout Europe. Thomson +enumerated some of the physical characteristics of the instinctive +criminal now generally recognised, pointed out the semi-imbecility +prevalent among the juvenile criminals under his observation, the +frequency of accumulated morbid appearances at _post-mortem_ examinations, +and the large proportion of cases at Perth needing treatment for mental +diseases soon after admission, “apparently from congenital causes.” +Thomson’s facts and opinions were too curtly, and, probably, too +emphatically stated. Dr. Nicolson, writing also in the same journal from +1873 to 1875, dealt with the morbid psychology of the criminal, the +unstable, emotional element in him, his proneness to delusions, his +insensibility, and his weak-mindedness. Dr. Nicolson’s papers, all written +before the latest and most fruitful era of criminal anthropology began, +were, so far as I have been able to trace, the latest original +contributions from the scientific side made in England to the study of the +criminal. Such knowledge as has been furnished since has come from writers +who have, almost of necessity, dealt with what may be called the mental +and social symptomatology of criminals. Among the books which supply more +or less valuable or interesting information of this kind may be mentioned +the Rev. J. W. Horsley’s _Jottings from Jail_, Michael Davitt’s _Leaves +from a Prison Diary_, and the _Scenes from a Silent World_, by a Prison +Visitor, which appeared in _Blackwood’s Magazine_ during 1889. An earlier +book of this class, Mayhew’s _London Labour and the London Poor_ (vol. +iv.), is perhaps still the most valuable. + +Italy is to-day the home of criminal anthropology, and not of criminal +anthropology only, but of all the sciences that are connected with crime +and the criminal; the Zanardelli criminal code, which has recently become +law, while by no means entirely satisfactory from the scientific point of +view, shows the influence of the new movement. In this respect Italy +remains true to traditions that are two thousand years old; in the +sixteenth century Italy was still the centre of studies in penal law, and, +to keep to modern times, it is enough to mention the great names of +Beccaria, and, still more recently, Romagnosi. It was under the auspices +of Beltrani-Scalia, well known in connection with prison reform, that the +earlier Italian studies in criminal anthropology were published, from 1870 +onwards, in the _Rivista delle discipline carcerarie_, a journal which +continues to publish valuable monographs. In this journal Lombroso +published, in 1872, the results of some investigations which he had made +on prisoners at Padua. + +Professor Cesare Lombroso, of Turin, occupies a position of such +importance in the development of criminal anthropology that it is +necessary to have a clear idea of his aims and methods and the nature of +his achievement. Born in 1836, of Venetian parentage, the various and +restless activities of Lombroso’s career are characteristic of the man who +has been all his life opening up new paths of investigation and enlarging +the horizon of human knowledge. At the age of eleven he composed +romances, poems, and tragedies in the manner of Alfieri; at twelve he +developed a passion for classical antiquity, and published two small works +on Roman archæology. At thirteen he was attracted to the study of +sociology from a linguistic point of view (chiefly, we are told, with +relation to Greek, Hebrew, Chinese, and Coptic); at the same time he was +drawn to natural science, being interested especially in the formation of +crystals, and before entering the University he had published two books of +a somewhat evolutionary character. While a student he was led, by the +combined study of ancient religions and of medicine, to the subject of +mental diseases. He began with studies on cretinism in Lombardy and +Liguria, his conclusions being afterwards adopted by Virchow and others. +In the eventful year of 1859 he became first a soldier, and afterwards a +military surgeon. In 1862 he was in charge of the department of mental +diseases at Pavia University, and he initiated there an institution for +the insane, a psychiatric museum, and a series of researches in the +application of exact methods to the study of insanity. This last attempt +was at the time received with general derision; it was said that he was +studying madness with a yard measure; but his methods gradually made +progress, and slowly met with general adoption. After this he made some +important investigations into the causes of pellagra. Called to direct the +asylum at Pesaro, he reformed it, and established a journal, written and +managed by the insane. He then returned to Pavia, where he continued his +psychiatric work, investigated the influence of atmospheric conditions on +the mind, invented an instrument to measure pain, and engaged in a great +number of studies, marked by extraordinary ingenuity, patience, and +insight. Even as a youth Lombroso possessed the art of divining fruitful +ideas, which at the time appeared absurd to scientific men as well as to +the public. Every line of investigation he took up was at the time +apparently opposed to the tendency of thought, and only received general +attention at a later date. This was true, to some extent, even of the +great achievement of his life. + +In the year 1859--perhaps the most memorable of the century--Broca, who +had a decided influence on Lombroso, had inaugurated the naturalist method +of treating man with the Anthropological Society of Paris. The +illuminating genius of Virchow, and his prodigious energy, which has done +so much for anthropology and the methods of anthropology, also had its +influence on the Italian, in some respects a kindred spirit. And Darwin’s +_Origin of Species_, published in 1859, supplied, for the first time, an +indispensable biological basis, and furnished that atavistic key of which +Lombroso was tempted to make at first so much use, sometimes, it must be +added, so much abuse. These circumstances combined to render possible, for +the first time, the complete scientific treatment of the criminal man as a +human variety, while Lombroso’s own manifold studies and various faculties +had given him the best preparation for approaching this great task. It was +in 1859 that he first conceived this task; _L’Uomo Delinquente_ was not, +however, finally published until 1876, while the second volume only +appeared in 1889. + +The influence of _L’Uomo Delinquente_ in Italy, France, and Germany seems +to have been as immediate and as decisive as that of _The Origin of +Species_. Despine’s _Psychologie Naturelle_, the greatest work on the +criminal that had appeared before Lombroso, was partial; the criminal was +therein regarded purely as a psychological anomaly. Lombroso first +perceived the criminal as, anatomically and physiologically, an organic +anomaly. He set about weighing him and measuring him, according to the +methods of anthropology. Even on the psychological side he gained new and +more exact results. He went back to the origins of crime among plants and +animals, among savages and children. He endeavoured to ascertain the place +of the criminal in nature, his causes, and his treatment. Lombroso’s work +is by no means free from faults. His style is abrupt; he is too impetuous, +arriving too rapidly at conclusions, lacking in critical faculty and in +balance. Thus he was led at the beginning to over-estimate the atavistic +element in the criminal, and at a later date he has pressed too strongly +the epileptic affinities of crime. His weaknesses have never been spared +rough handling from friendly or unfriendly hands. Thus Mantegazza, while +recognising his _ingegno potentemente apostolico e geniale_, denies that +Lombroso possesses any of the qualities of a scientific investigator, and +Dr. Napoleone Colajanni, who, from the socialistic left of the movement, +has, in his _Sociologia Criminale_ (1889-90) and elsewhere, bestowed much +elaborate and often valuable criticism on the centre, compares Lombroso’s +indiscriminate collection of facts to Charles IX.’s famous order on St. +Bartholomew’s eve: “Kill them all; God will know His own.” But his work +has been so rich, so laborious, so various; it has opened up so many new +lines of investigation, and has suggested so many more, that it has +everywhere been received as marking a new epoch. He was, as he has himself +expressed it, the pollen-conveying insect, and the new science which he +fecundated has grown with extraordinary rapidity. A continuous stream of +studies--from books of the most comprehensive character down to +investigations into minute points of criminal anatomy or physiology--is +constantly pouring forth. It is still impossible to gather up this mass of +investigation, often necessarily discordant, into more than a tentative +whole, but its existence is sufficient to prove the vitality of the new +science. It has of course met with fierce antagonism, and Lombroso himself +has declared that perhaps not one stone will remain upon another, but that +if this is to be the fate of his work, a better edifice will arise in its +place. + +Two other Italians must be mentioned with Lombroso. Enrico Ferri, +Professor of Penal Law at Rome and a Deputy in the Italian Parliament, +while doing valuable work as a criminal anthropologist, has at the same +time studied the social bearings of criminality in his best-known book, +_Nuovi Orizzonti del Diritto_. He has occupied himself less with the +instinctive than with the occasional criminal, and his clear and +philosophic spirit has placed him at the head of criminal sociologists. +Garofalo, a Neapolitan lawyer, accepting generally the conclusions reached +by Lombroso and Ferri, has become the most distinguished jurist of the +movement, the pioneer in that reform of law through the methods of natural +science which must eventually become so fruitful. His _Criminologie_ (the +new and enlarged edition is written in French) is marked by luminous yet +careful generalisation, and it contains many suggestions of wise reform. +Garofalo has brought into clear relief the inadequacy of legal maxims +founded on antiquated and unscientific conceptions, and he has shown that +not the nature of the crime, but the dangerousness (_temibilità_) of the +criminal constitutes the only reasonable legal criterion to guide the +inevitable social reaction against the criminal. This position is now +generally accepted as the legitimate outcome of the scientific study of +the criminal. + +Among Italian workers in the department of criminal anthropology proper, a +very high place belongs to Dr. Antonio Marro, formerly surgeon to the +prison at Turin. _I Caratteri dei Delinquenti_ (1887) contains the results +of a carefully-detailed and methodic examination of more than five hundred +prisoners, men and women, and of over one hundred normal persons together +with an investigation into their ancestry and habits. All the data are +presented in tabular form, and his excellent methods and judicious +moderation in drawing conclusions impart great value to his work. His +exactness and impartiality have been admired even by those whose instincts +and training have led them to dread the invasions of this department of +science. Dr. Marro has made interesting contributions to the +differentiation of various criminal types, and he has brought out very +clearly the disastrous tendency to degeneration among the children of +parents who have passed middle age. Other Italian studies, among many that +might be mentioned, are Virgilio’s, dating from 1874, Dr. P. Penta’s +elaborate studies, the various works of Zuccarelli, the energetic +Neapolitan professor and editor of _L’Anomalo_, V. Rossi’s work, _Studio +sopra una Centuria di Criminali_, Salsotto’s on women delinquents, and +Ottolenghi’s investigations into the senses of criminals. The _Archivio di +Psichiatria_, a rich storehouse of elaborate observations, founded in +1880, directed by Lombroso, Ferri, Garofalo, and Morselli, edited by Rossi +and Ottolenghi, remains at the head of journals of criminal anthropology. + +The first suggestion of an international congress of criminal anthropology +arose in Italy, and dates from the year 1882, when Salvatore Tommasi +published an important article in the _Rassegna Critica_. The first +congress, that of Rome, was not, however, actually held until 1885. It was +attended by all the most distinguished criminal anthropologists, criminal +sociologists, and jurists of the “positive” school, chiefly Italian, +French, and German, and its _Actes_ are of great interest. The second +international congress was held in August 1889, in Paris. It was of a more +cosmopolitan character than the first, and of even greater interest.[14] + +France has always been a laboratory for the popularisation of great ideas, +and Tarde’s _La Criminalité Comparée_ is among the best of such attempts. +M. Tarde is a _juge d’instruction_, not an alienist or an anthropologist; +he touches on all the various problems of crime with ever-ready +intelligence and acuteness, and a rare charm of literary style, +illuminating with suggestive criticism everything that he touches. This +easily accessible little volume of the Libraire de Philosophie +Contemporaine is the most comprehensive introduction for those who would +go down to the _città dolente_ by a rose-strewn path. Lacassagne, the +eminent medico-legal expert of Lyons, and editor of the valuable +_Archives de l’Anthropologie Criminelle_, stands perhaps at the head of +French criminal anthropologists, although beyond his monograph, _Les +Tatouages_, he has published little. The judicial qualities of his mind, +and his power of expressing just and large conceptions in felicitous and +memorable phrases, impart value to all that he writes, and his forthcoming +work on the criminal man will, it is probable, for all practical purposes, +supersede other works. _De la Criminalité chez les Arabes_, by A. Kocher, +a pupil of Lacassagne’s, is a book of great interest, and the names of +Manouvrier, Bournet, Corre, Laurent, etc., are well known in connection +with criminal anthropology in France, while Féré ably represents the +French school which explains criminality by degeneration alone. + +In Germany the serious study of the criminal may be said to have begun +with Krafft-Ebing, the distinguished professor of psychiatry, now at +Vienna, who, by laying down clearly in his _Grundzuge der Kriminal +Psychologie_ (1872), and other works, the doctrine of a criminal +psychosis, and pointing out its practical results, deserves, as Krauss +remarks, to be regarded as an important precursor of Lombroso. Knecht +studied over 1200 prisoners anthropologically. Dr. A. Krauss, who began +with investigations into criminal psychology, has since done much solid +work in criminal anthropology. Flesch made important observations on the +morbid pathology of criminals; Benedikt, known in connection with various +interesting investigations in criminal anthropology, began in 1879 with a +remarkable study of the criminal brain, in which he observed frequent +confluence of the fissures, as among some lower races, and also an +additional convolution in the frontal lobe, which he assimilated to that +of the carnivora. His conclusions in this difficult field of research +were, however, considerably shaken by Professor Giacomini, of Turin, and +others, who showed that similar anomalies are found, although not so +frequently, in normal persons. The brilliant Viennese professor has in his +recently-published _Kraniometrie und Kephalometrie_ shown himself the most +original and suggestive of living students of the architecture of the +skull. + +In Holland, Professor Van Hamel, of Amsterdam, represents the new spirit +of approaching the problems of criminality. + +In Belgium, where Quetelet’s great work, _Physique Sociale_, inaugurated +criminal sociology, and where prison reform, which has always attracted +much attention, is now ably represented by Professor Adolphe Prins, the +results of criminal anthropology have been received and discussed with +interest and sympathy, and various researches have been carried on. +Professor Héger and Dr. Semal of Mons should also be named here. In 1884 +the Anthropological Society of Belgium nominated a commission for the +investigation of criminal anthropology. This led to various interesting +researches, none of them, however, of great importance. + +In Spain and Portugal criminal anthropology is being prosecuted with much +zeal. Among its chief representatives may be named especially Vera and +Rafael Salillas (whose interesting book, _La Vida Penal en España_, gives +a very vivid picture of life in the Spanish prisons), and at Lisbon +Bernardo Lucas. D’Azevedo Castello Branco, sub-director of Lisbon prison, +should also be mentioned. In 1889, at a congress held in Lisbon, the +relation of criminal anthropology to penality, legal reform, and allied +problems was fully discussed. + +In the rapidly-developing Spanish countries of South America, especially +in the Argentine Republic, criminal anthropology seems to be making great +progress. It is officially taught at the University of Buenos Ayres. Luis +del Drago, a judge in the Argentine Republic, with his _Los hombres de +Presa_ (1888), an able study of criminality, which has rapidly reached a +second edition, thus showing the interest generally felt in these studies, +and some other workers, witness to the progress made in this country. On +the initiative of Dr. del Drago, with influential coadjutors, a society +for the promotion of criminal anthropology was founded in Buenos Ayres in +1888, “to study the person of the criminal, to establish the degree of his +dangerousness and of his responsibility, and to effect the gradual and +progressive reform of penal law in accordance with the principles of the +new school.” In Brazil Professor Viejra de Aranjo of Pernambuco is the +chief representative of the science. + +In Russia and Poland, although the study of criminal anthropology dates +from very recent years, it is making considerable progress. Bielakoff, in +the _Archives of Psichiatry_ of Kharkoff, studied 100 homicides. Professor +Troizki, of Warsaw, published a careful study of 350 prisoners. Dr. +Prascovia Tarnowskaia examined 100 female thieves, whom she compared with +150 prostitutes and 100 peasant women. On the legal side, Dimitri Drill is +engaged on a great work, of which one volume only is published at present, +in which he deals thoroughly with the organic factors of crime, and with +the social applications of criminal anthropology. The Russians seem to be +characteristically audacious in their applications of the new science, and +there is in Russia a feeling, not merely against imprisoning criminals, +but even against secluding them. In 1885 a young girl assassinated a +Jewish child to obtain possession for her lover of the money of the +child’s father, a rich usurer. Professor Babinski declared that she was +not mad, but entirely devoid of moral notions, that she was incurable, and +that it would be quite useless (useless, that is, from a medical point of +view) to put her in an asylum. She was acquitted. + +In Great Britain alone during the last fifteen years there is no +scientific work in criminal anthropology to be recorded. When Dr. Coutagne +inaugurated, in 1888, a “Chronique Anglaise” in the _Archives de +l’Anthropologie Criminelle_, he could not conceal his embarrassment. While +the Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Russian summaries are founded on a +large series of works in criminal anthropology, in England there is +absolutely no centre for the scientific study of criminality. “Legal +medicine,” he remarks, “has there inspired no special publication, nor any +learned society. At the International Medical Congress of London, in 1881, +although so remarkably organised, it was less well treated than +laryngology or dentistry, and formed the object of no section, state +medicine being almost synonymous with hygiene. If we consult the +scientific journals of England dealing with allied subjects, our baggage +will receive very few additions.” In 1889 the International Association of +Criminal Law was founded by Professor G. A. Van Hamel of Amsterdam, +Professor Fr. von Liszt of Marburg, and Professor Adolphe Prins of +Brussels. This association, which has a great future before it, +represents, from the scientific and practical standpoint, the movement of +reform in matters that relate to the criminal. It maintains that +criminality and the repression of crime must be regarded as much from the +social as from the legal point of view. It endeavours to establish this +principle and its consequences in the science of criminal law as well as +in penal legislation. The association already numbers between three and +four hundred members, and includes well-known representatives from +twenty-one different countries in Europe and America. England is among the +least well represented of all; the English members rank in number with the +Portuguese, Servian, and Argentine members. Germany is more than twenty +times better represented.[15] No interest was felt in England in the +International Congress of Criminal Anthropology recently held in Paris. At +this Congress official delegates came from all parts of the civilised +world, from Russia to Hawaii, but although there were two from the United +States, there was not one from Great Britain. When some twelve months +since I issued a series of Questions, dealing with some of the main points +in the investigation of the criminal, to the medical officers of the +larger prisons in Great Britain and Ireland, the answers that I received, +while sometimes of much interest--and I am indebted to my correspondents +for their anxiety to answer to the best of their ability--were amply +sufficient to show that criminal anthropology as an exact science is yet +unknown in England. Some of my correspondents, I fear, had not so much as +heard whether there be a criminal anthropology.[16] England has, however, +in the past been a home of studies connected with the condition of the +criminal. The centenary of John Howard, which we have lately celebrated, +is a brilliant witness to this fact. Fifty years ago Englishmen sought to +distinguish themselves by the invention of patent improved tread-mills and +similar now antiquated devices to benefit the criminal. We began zealously +with the therapeutics of crime; it is now time to study the criminal’s +symptomatology, his diagnosis, his pathology, and it is scarcely possible +to imagine that in these studies England will long continue to lag so far +behind the rest of the civilised world. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +CRIMINAL ANTHROPOLOGY (PHYSICAL). + + +§ 1. _Cranial and Cerebral Characteristics._ + +Considerably greater importance was formerly attributed to the shape and +measurements of the head than we can now accord to them, although the +subject still retains much interest. A vast quantity of data has +accumulated concerning the heads of criminals; some of the results are +contradictory, but certain definite conclusions clearly emerge. + +The _average_ size of criminals’ heads is probably about the same as that +of ordinary people’s heads; but both small and large heads are found in +greater proportion, the medium-sized heads being deficient. The same is +true, as Tigges and others have shown, of the insane, though among these +the larger preponderate to a greater extent. Thieves more frequently have +small heads; the large heads are usually found among murderers. + +Nothing very definite can be said of the cephalic indices save that they +are frequently an exaggeration of those of the race to which the criminal +belongs; those of long-headed race being sometimes very long, and those of +broad-headed race sometimes very broad; the Corsican criminal being often +very dolichocephalic, and the Breton criminal often very brachycephalic. + +There is a generally recognised tendency to the pointed (oxycephalic) or +sugar-loaf form of head. Though this form is probably, as Benedikt points +out, an effort at compensation, it is an effort that testifies to +defective organisation. The opposite defect of low or flat-roofed skull is +also found among criminals, and is characteristic of degeneration. +Lauvergne, in his old book on criminals, has a vivid and picturesque +sketch of a variety of this kind of head, which he called the satanic +type, and which he found among many of the worst criminals: “Such are the +heads which painters throw into their pictures, and call ‘heads of the +other world.’ I have recognised them in mediæval pictures, and in all the +museums in which the products of early art are preserved. You will see +them on old cathedrals, in which devils play a part, or wherever the +artist has received some diabolical inspiration, as in the Campo Santo at +Pisa. One cannot, indeed, better represent the genius of evil, Satan, the +fallen angel, than by giving him such a head.... Behind the frontal bones +the head seems to have been tied with a band to compress it around and to +force the swelling of the hemispheres upwards and backwards. It is the +head vulgarly called sugar-loaf. When it is complete, that is to say, when +it presents a prominent base supporting an inclined pyramid, more or less +truncated, this head announces the monstrous alliance of the most eminent +faculty of man, genius, with the most pronounced impulses to rape, murder, +and theft.” Benedikt regards the bilateral elevation of the sagittal +suture as, though rare, “significant of profound perversity of brain +function.” He also regards disproportionate development of the occipital +part of the skull as a characteristic mark of degeneration.[17] It +appears that the posterior half of the skull varies much more in different +individuals than the anterior half. + +The orbital capacity has been noted by Lombroso and others to be +frequently larger than normal (as among birds of prey and some savages), +especially among thieves. There is marked exaggeration of the orbital +arches and frontal sinuses which may be related, at all events in the +cases of individuals living in the country, with energy of the respiratory +system. + +Receding foreheads, very commonly observed among criminals, have always +been regarded as evidence of low mental and moral organisation, not +without reason, though it must be remembered, as Ten-Kate and Benedikt +point out, that the breadth, vaulting, and general size of the head must +be taken into consideration. Many men of marked intellectual power have +had receding foreheads. + +Tenchini has pointed out (and the observation has since been confirmed) +that the frontal crest is often stronger and more prominent in criminals. +In normal skulls he found it 3-4 millimetres in length; in criminals +frequently 5-6 mm. It is also larger in the insane and lower races, and +relatively larger in orang-outangs. It may signify precocious union of the +two parts of the frontal bone with consequent arrest of brain development. + +The presence of a median occipital fossa has been specially noted by +Lombroso, sometimes in connection with hypertrophy of the vermis of the +cerebellum, as among the lower apes, in the human fœtus between the third +and fourth months, and in some lower races. + +Lack of cranial symmetry is one of the most marked features of the +criminal skull, although it has not often at present been subjected to +exact measurement.[18] It must be remembered that every skull, criminal or +non-criminal, is deficient in strict symmetry (and, indeed, every part of +the body likewise), and that statistics therefore are here of little +value; it is simply a question of the amount of asymmetry; and two +observers going over the same series of skulls would almost certainly come +to different conclusions. They would probably, however, both find the +proportion of asymmetrical heads greater in the criminal than in the +ordinary series. + +All these cranial abnormalities are found occasionally in ordinary +persons; very rarely are they found combined in normal persons to the +extent that they are found among instinctive criminals. Thus Lombroso, +when he examined the skull of Gasparone, a famous brigand of the beginning +of the century, whose name still lives in legends and poems, found +microcephaly of the frontal region, a wormian bone, eurigmatism, increase +in the orbital capacity, oxycephaly, and extreme dolichocephaly. +Mingazzini found that out of thirty criminals eight presented brains and +skulls of a weight and capacity only found in submicrocephalic subjects; +that several of these showed, either in brain or skull, or both, the union +of several anomalies; and that in the skulls of other six the abnormal +appearances were so manifold as to present an aspect which might be +called “completely teratologic.”[19] Most of these anomalies are found +much more frequently in the male than in the female skull. If, however, +the criminal woman is compared with the normal woman, she is found to +approach more closely to the normal man than the latter does; while the +corresponding character (feminility) is not found so often in the criminal +as in the normal man, except among pæderasts and some thieves. It may also +be mentioned that nearly all these anomalies are much more rarely found in +the insane. + +In Plates I.-VI. will be found a series of convicts’ heads--concerning +which information may be found in Appendix A--illustrating in a very +remarkable manner many of the peculiarities noted in this and subsequent +sections. They are reproduced from sketches made by Dr. Vans Clarke, +formerly governor of Woking Prison. The thirty-six here reproduced I have +selected from 111 of a similar character in Dr. Clarke’s note-books. They +are, as Dr. Clarke remarks, exceptional rather than typical heads; but as +he discontinued making the sketches after he had seen about a thousand +men, the specimens given are evidently by no means very exceptional. They +represent at the least 10 per cent. of the criminals examined. “My +sketches,” he writes, “were taken at the ‘model prison’ of Pentonville, +where the duty of filling up the medical history-sheet of every convict on +his arrival devolved upon me, and I was prompted to use my sketch-book +during the physical examination, on the observation of remarkable +peculiarities in many of the heads and faces of the criminals. The +portraits were necessarily taken in haste, but they were true, and were +considered to be successful as likenesses. I may say that I was compelled +to make a selection rather from want of time than the lack of material. In +a less marked degree the instances of misshapen heads and repulsive facial +characters were very common.” Some of the cranial and facial +characteristics noted by criminal anthropologists are brought out in these +sketches in so well-marked a form that it may be as well to say that they +were taken some years ago, before the publication of Lombroso’s work, and +it was therefore impossible for Dr. Clarke to have been unconsciously +influenced by any preconceived notions on the subject. + +As far back as 1836 Lélut weighed ten brains of criminals, and his results +show, according to Topinard, a result below that of the normal. Bischoff, +in 1880, published the results of an important series of observations he +had made on the weight of the brain in criminals. He weighed the brains of +137 criminals and 422 normal persons. He found that small-sized and +medium-sized brains were about equally common in criminals and in normal +subjects; while among the heavier brains, weighing from 1400 to 1500 +grammes, the criminals were in the proportion of 24 per cent., the normal +persons of 20 per cent. Topinard, putting together the results of several +series of observations on the weight of the brain in criminals, and +comparing them with those of Broca for ordinary individuals of the same +age, finds that in criminals there is an inferiority of some 30 grammes. +There is some reason to suppose that the weight of the cerebellum in +criminals is often decidedly superior to the normal savage. It is clear, +on the whole, that little importance attaches to the weight of the brain +in criminals, a conclusion which harmonises with such a fact as that +Gambetta’s brain resembled in weight that of a microcephalic idiot. + +[Illustration: PLATE I.] + +[Illustration: PLATE II.] + +[Illustration: PLATE III.] + +[Illustration: PLATE IV.] + +[Illustration: PLATE V.] + +[Illustration: PLATE VI.] + +There is more evidence in favour of attaching some importance to the shape +of the brain, to its relative development, to the condition and relations +of its convolutions. Broca, Topinard, and many other eminent +anthropologists and anatomists have attributed great value to these +relations. Gall was perhaps the first to suspect their significance. +Benedikt, in 1879, published some interesting generalisations on the +brains of criminals which he had examined. He found special frequency of +confluent fissures; that is to say, according to his own description, if +we imagine the fissures of the brain to be channels of water, a swimmer +might with ease pass through all these channels. Benedikt also found in +the brains of his criminals that the frontal lobe frequently presented +four convolutions, a peculiarity which he considered as a reversion to the +carnivorous type; the investigations of Hanot and Bouchard confirmed these +results. But Benedikt neglected to make an adequate comparison with the +normal brain, and Giacomini, Corre, Fallot, and Féré have shown that these +peculiarities are not very rare in ordinary subjects. The question of +confluent fissures had before this time attracted the attention of Broca, +and his conclusions may probably still be accepted:--“One or more of these +communications,” he said, “do not prevent a brain from being at once very +intelligent and very well balanced, but when they are numerous, and when +they affect important parts, they indicate defective development. They are +often seen in the small brains of the weak-minded and idiots, very +frequently also in the brains of murderers, with this difference, that in +the first case they are related to the smallness of the convolutions and +of the brain generally; while in the second case they coincide with +convolutions for the most part ample in size, and bear witness to +irregularity in cerebral development.” Flesch studied the brains of fifty +criminals, and found that every one presented some anomaly, sometimes of a +remarkable character, as incomplete covering of cerebellum by cerebrum. He +found two kinds of deviations common, one characterised by less richness +of convolution than is found usually in ordinary brains, the other +characterised by much greater richness of convolution than he had ever +observed in normal brains. On the whole we may agree with Hervé, that +“what the brains of criminals present, not characteristically but in +common with those of other individuals badly endowed though by no means +criminals, is a frequent totality of defective conditions from the point +of view of their regular functions, and which renders them inferior.”[20] + +Although a very considerable mass of evidence is now accumulating, we know +considerably less of the brains of criminals than of their skulls. This is +in large measure due to the fact that there is at present insufficient +evidence regarding the condition of the normal and healthy brain, and +unless controlled by careful series of observations on normal persons, +observations on criminal brains cannot be interpreted. + +The important matter of the vascular supply of the brain in criminals has +yet received little attention, but a variety of pathological features have +been found in the cerebral substance and membranes--pigmentation, +degenerating capillaries, cysts, thickened and adherent membranes, the +vestiges of old hyperæmia and hæmorrhages. Some of these conditions are +found with great frequency, much oftener than in the insane; meningitis, +for instance, being found, according to Lombroso’s experience, in 50 per +cent. of the cases examined; while Flesch has obtained very similar +results. The frequency of meningitis was noticed in some of the answers to +my Questions, especially by one prison surgeon who wrote of +“well-organised adhesions between the dura mater and vault of cranium, +localised but more extensive than one would expect to find.” +Unfortunately, he was unable to supply exact figures as to the frequency +of such signs. It must be added, as a point of considerable importance, +that in very few cases have these pathological lesions produced any +traceable symptoms during life. + + +§ 2. _The Face._ + +Prognathism has frequently been noted as a prominent characteristic of the +criminal face, both in men and women. This is, however, a point that +requires further study; giving due weight to racial characteristics, to +the proportion of prognathous individuals among the general population, +and to method and uniformity in measurement. + +There is little doubt that the lower jaw is often remarkably well +developed in those guilty of crimes of violence. The squareness and +prominence of the jaw are obvious to the eye, and this is verified by +weighing after death, as has been shown by Manouvrier. The average weight +of the Parisian criminal skull is, if anything, below that of the ordinary +Parisian, but while the average weight of the lower jaw in the latter is +about 80 grammes, it is about 94 grammes among murderers. In this respect +the criminal resembles the savage and the prehistoric man; among the +insane the jaw weighs rather less than the normal average. A type of +receding chin is also found frequently among petty criminals, the +occasional or habitual, who are criminals by weakness; such heads +Lauvergne called _têtes moutonnes_. + +Prominence of the zigoma or cheek-bone has been noted by many observers, +especially in sexual offenders, among whom Marro found it in 30 per cent. +as against 22 per cent. in normal persons. This recalls a remark made many +years ago by Charles Kingsley: “I have generally seen with strong animal +passion a tendency to high cheek-bone;” but he confines this +generalisation to women, and to those who are dark-complexioned. Virchow +believes that the large development of the jaws and the cheek-bones (to +which powerful muscles are attached) is favoured by coarse and hard food +through many generations. + +A few isolated observations have been made on the teeth of criminals by +Lombroso, Zuccarelli, and others, who have observed certain anomalies, +such as exaggerated or deficient development of the canines; and Dr. +Prascovia Tarnowskaia, in her one hundred women thieves, found defects of +the bony palate and undeveloped teeth among the most frequent anomalies. +So far as I know, however, no extensive and careful series of observations +has yet been made on the teeth of criminals. It is desirable that this +should be done. The course of dental evolution among the higher mammals is +now fairly well known. Atavism in dental anomalies is well recognised +among the races of man; a fourth molar, for instance, found generally +among the platyrhine apes, is occasionally found in man: in what +proportion is it found among criminals? What, again, is the relative +condition of the canine teeth? The wisdom-teeth are dying out; they are +only absent among lower races in 19 per cent. cases, while in the higher +races they are absent in 42 per cent. of the observed cases (Mantegazza). +How do criminals stand in this respect? The development of the teeth is +very closely related to the development of the nerves and brain. The +extraordinary frequency of dental and palatal anomalies in idiots was +pointed out in England in 1860 by Ballard and Langdon Down, and they have +been carefully studied of recent years by Dr. Talbot, of Chicago, and by +Dr. Alice Sollier at the Bicêtre in Paris. It is worth noting, in +reference to the undeveloped teeth so frequently found by Dr. Tarnowskaia +among women thieves, that Dr. Sollier found abnormally small teeth in 13 +per cent. of her idiots. Among the insane dental anomalies are +comparatively rare. + +[Illustration: 1. Darwinian tubercle and absence of helix. 2. Absence of +lobule and antitragus. (Féré and Séglas.)] + +Even non-scientific observers have noted the frequency among criminals of +projecting or of long and voluminous ears. In the answers to my Questions +issued to medical officers of prisons I found that the prominent ears of +criminals were more generally recognised than any other abnormality. Thus +Dr. V. Clarke says--“The largely developed external ear is a common +feature;” others speak of “ears often large and outstanding,” etc. +Lombroso finds the ear _ad ansa_, as he calls it--the handle-shaped +ear--in 28 per cent. of his criminals; Knecht in 22 per cent.; Marro not +more frequently than among ordinary people. Ottolenghi, who has recently +examined the ears of nearly 600 criminals and of 200 normal persons, finds +that while among the latter it is found in 20 per cent., among the former +it is found in 39 per cent., the percentage varying from 35 among thieves +to 42 among those convicted of assault and wounding. This observation is +indeed by no means of recent date. In reading lately that curious treatise +of mediæval physiology, Michael Scott’s _De Secretis Naturæ_, I found that +a very bad character is given to those persons whose ears are uncommonly +long, or ample transversely; they are bold, vain, foolish, incapable of +work. To come down to comparatively recent times, Grohmann in 1820 noted +the prominent ear as a marked characteristic of the criminal. Morel +studied the abnormalities of the ear, especially in relation to heredity; +Foville, as Dr. Barnes informs me, was accustomed to point out their +significance in the insane; and in England Laycock fully appreciated their +value as indications of degeneration.[21] Dr. Langdon Down, working on the +same lines as Laycock, points out in _Mental Diseases of Childhood_ the +frequency of congenital ear deformities in idiots and the feeble-minded, +associated often with webbed toes and fingers; also an implantation of the +ears farther back than is normal, giving an exaggerated facial +development. In France, Italy, and Germany there has within the last two +or three years sprung up a considerable literature on the subject, of +which Frigerio’s little book, _L’Oreille Externe: Étude d’Anthropologie +Criminelle_ (Paris, 1888), is perhaps the most valuable. Dr. Frigerio, who +has devoted special attention to this feature both among criminals and the +insane, finds certain peculiarities very common, and also notes various +anomalies of movement in the pinna and its partial hyperæmia, especially +in neurotic subjects. From the examination of several hundred subjects, he +concludes that the auriculo-temporal angle (measured by a special otometer +from the edge of the pinna to the mastoid) undergoes a gradual progression +from below 90° in the normal person, above 90° among criminals and the +insane, up to above 100° among apes. He found the large angle very marked +in homicides; less so in thieves. The longest ear Frigerio has ever seen +in man or woman was in a woman convicted of complicity in the murder of +her husband; the left ear was 78 mm., the right 81 mm. (the normal being +50-60 mm.) in length. Her father, her two sisters, and three cousins all +possessed excessively large ears, and were all convicts. The degenerative +variations to which he attributes most importance are the Darwinian +tubercle--_i.e._, a pointed projection in the outer margin of the +ear--frequent among the insane and criminals, the doubling of the +posterior branch of the fork of the antihelix, and a conical tragus (very +frequent in childhood and among apes) often found among the insane and +criminals. Féré and Séglas,[22] who examined over 1200 subjects--healthy, +insane, idiot, and epileptic--found anomalies frequent among epileptics, +and especially so among idiots; but not notably more frequent among the +insane than among the sane. They especially noted the number of +abnormalities frequently found in the same subject; and also a connection +between defects in the ear and sexual abnormalities. The committee +appointed by the British Medical Association to investigate the +development and condition of brain function among the children in primary +schools, found that ear-defects were especially frequent in connection +with nerve-defects and mental weakness.[23] + +[Illustration: 1. Darwinian tubercle. 2. Root of the helix dividing the +concha into two distinct cavities. 3. Adherent lobule. (Féré and Séglas.)] + +The most common (so-called) atavistic abnormalities of the ear--_i.e._, +those most frequently and prominently seen among the anthropoid and other +apes--are the Darwinian tubercle,[24] absence of one of the branches of +the fork, absence of helix, effacement of antihelix, exaggerated +development of root of helix, absence of lobule. Adherent lobule may +frequently be observed in well-developed individuals; it is not found +among apes, and appears to have no special significance. + +The projecting ear has usually been considered as an atavistic character, +and with considerable reason, as it is found in many apes, in some of the +lower races, and it corresponds to the usual disposition of the ear in the +fœtus. Marro prefers to regard it as a morbid character because it is so +frequently united with true degenerative abnormalities, and because it is +not always found in the lowest human races; Hartmann, for instance, having +found it frequently among the European peasants, and in Africa more +frequently among Turks, Greeks, and Maltese than among the indigenous +fellaheen, Berbers, and negroes of the Soudan. Among so low a race as the +Australians the ear is often, I have noticed, very well shaped. At the +same time the projecting ear frequently accompanies deaf-mutism, Dr. +Albertotti having found it in sixteen out of thirty-three deaf-mutes. + +[Illustration: 1. Forking of the root of the helix. (Féré and Sêglas.)] + +The ear, it is well known, is very sensitive to vasomotor changes, slight +changes serving to affect the circulation visibly; so that in pale, +nervous people a trifling emotion will cause the ears to blush. Galton +tells us of a schoolmistress who judges of the fatigue of her pupils by +the condition of their ears. If the ears are white, flabby, and pendent, +she concludes that the children are very fatigued; if they are relaxed +but red, that they are suffering, not from overwork, but from a struggle +with their nervous systems, rarely under control at the age of fourteen or +fifteen. If this kind of sensitiveness is not common among criminals, a +few of neurotic temperament, as well as some lunatics, possess the power, +rare among normal persons, of moving the ear. Frigerio notes movements of +the superior and posterior muscles, especially when touched; in apes the +transverse muscle also acts. Frigerio connects this power of movement with +perpetual fear, always on the look-out; many of the criminals with this +peculiarity were recidivists, and three of the lunatics had delusions of +persecution. + +The interest of these investigations, now so actively carried on, into the +malformations of the pinna among criminals is obvious. A few ingenious +persons have sought to explain some of them by the influence of the +headgear, pulling of the ears, etc.; but on the whole it is generally +recognised that they are congenital. The study of them, therefore, is of +distinct value in enabling us to fix the natural relationships of the +criminal man. There is still need for careful series of observations on +criminals, the insane, epileptics, and idiots, and every such series +should be controlled by a similar series of observations, by the same +observer, on ordinary subjects. + +The criminal nose has been measured and studied with great care and +enthusiasm by Ottolenghi.[25] He finds that the criminal nose in general +is rectilinear, more rarely undulating, with horizontal base, of medium +length, rather large and frequently deviating to one side, and he +describes several varieties. Thus the typical thief’s nose is rectilinear, +often incurved, short, large, and often twisted, with lifted base. The +sexual offender presents the most rectilinear nose, though he shows the +undulating profile of nose more frequently than any other group of +criminals, of medium length and rather large. Ottolenghi believes that his +observations help to show, both in the skeleton and in life, an anatomical +relationship between criminals against the person and epileptics and +monomaniacs; also a relationship between thieves and sexual offenders and +cretins. His observations are full and interesting, but the matter needs +further investigation; the anthropological importance of the nose has +scarcely yet been fully realised. + +Most writers on criminals speak of the pallor of the skin; this has been +noted at a very remote period by Polemon, l’Ingegneri, and other early +physiognomists. Marro has found it in 14 per cent. of his criminals, as +against 3 per cent. among the ordinary population. He considers that it is +related to habitual cerebral congestion. Pallor is also caused (as +Colajanni points out, and testifies to from personal experience) by +prolonged imprisonment, even under favourable circumstances. It is +probable that the influence of this cause has not yet been eliminated with +sufficient care. + +Ottolenghi has investigated the wrinkles on the faces of 200 criminals as +compared with 200 normal persons. He finds that they are much more +frequent and much more marked in the criminal than in the non-criminal +person, and this must have struck many persons who have seen a large +number of criminals or photographs of criminals. The relative frequency is +especially marked in zygomatic and genio-mental wrinkles, while the +foreheads, even of youthful criminals, and when the face is in a state of +repose, sometimes present a curiously marked and scored appearance. The +precocity of these wrinkles is worthy of note. “We found young criminals +of fourteen,” Ottolenghi remarks, “with wrinkles more evident and marked +than are met with in many normal men above thirty. It is these precocious +wrinkles which give to young criminals that aspect of premature virility +which Lombroso and Marro have already noticed.” “It is worthy of note,” he +remarks also, “that the part of the face which, by the prevalence of +wrinkles, shows more active expression in criminals as in other +degenerated persons, is that corresponding to the region of the nose and +mouth--that is to say, the less contemplative, more material, part of the +face; and, in fact, we see that, with the exception of some murderers, who +have a surly look and corrugated forehead, the typical delinquent presents +habitually in the more rational and contemplative part of his face the +least degree of active expression, this corresponding to his limited +psychical sensibility.” + + +§ 3. _Anomalies of the Hair._ + +The beard in criminals is usually scanty. As against 1.5 per cent. cases +of absence of beard in normal persons, Marro found 13.9 per cent. in +criminals, and a very large proportion having scanty beard. The largest +proportion of full beards among criminals was found by Marro in sexual +offenders. + +On the head the hair is usually, on the contrary, abundant. Marro has +observed a notable proportion of woolly-haired persons, a character very +rarely found in normal individuals. The same character has been noted +among idiots. In contrast with what is found among the insane, baldness is +very rare. Among criminal women remarkable abundance of hair is frequently +noted, and it has sometimes formed their most characteristic physical +feature, accompanied by an unusual development of fine hair on the face +and body. Salsotto, who has given special attention to criminal women, +finds a considerable distribution of hair between the pubes and the +umbilicus (as in men) in 10 per cent. of the forty women he examined as to +this character; such distribution among normal women only occurring +(according to Schulze) in 5 per cent. cases. Salsotto also found abundant +hair in seven out of the forty around the anus, a part in normal women +rarely supplied with hair. The excess of down on the face is found with +special frequency in women guilty of infanticide. It is worth while +pointing out that (as Dr. Langdon Down notes) there are frequent anomalies +in the development of hair among idiots. Some are hirsute over the entire +body; 11 per cent. have continuous eye-brows. + +This abundance of hair seems to be correlated with the animal vigour which +is often so noticeable among criminals. It may at the same time be to some +extent explained by arrest of development or atavism leading to the +deficiency of beard which in its fully developed form marks, with few +exceptions, only the highest human races. Strong sexual instincts are but +the effervescence of this animal vigour; hence, perhaps, the connection +between the presence of an unusual amount of hair and infanticide. In the +case selected by Bucknill and Tuke as a typical example of insanity in +women due to repressed sexual instinct, the chief physical characteristic +noted was the amount of hair on the body; and in a case recorded by Dr. H. +Sutherland (_West Riding Asylum Reports_, vol. vi.) of a girl whose +illness and subsequent death were in his opinion due to “unsatisfied +sexual desire,” the long fair hair, which she delighted in letting flow +down to her knees, was specially noted. It was observed of the French +writer, Restif de la Bretonne, of whose extraordinary and abnormal sexual +proclivities, even at an early age, he has himself left ample evidence in +his autobiographical book, _Monsieur Nicolas_, that his body was +remarkably hairy. + +In regard to colours, the proportion of dark-haired persons is considered +greater among criminals than among the ordinary population in England, +Italy, and Germany. An exception to this general rule in the case of +sexual offenders (rape and pæderasty) appears to be well marked in Italy; +though, so far as I have been able to ascertain, it has not been +frequently observed in England. Marro associates the fair hair of sexual +offenders with the precocious puberty of fair-haired women, as shown by +the investigations of Professor Pagliani. The researches of Marro and +Ottolenghi over a very considerable field give the following results for +North Italy:-- + + Chestnut Hair. Fair. Black. + + Normal persons (900) 90.78 per cent. 9.22 per cent. + Criminals (1620) 93.83 " 6.17 " + Sexual offenders (100) 81.85 " 16.67 " 1.48 per cent. + +Ottolenghi notes that the prevailing fair colour is reddish.[26] + +Grey hair was found by Ottolenghi to be vastly more frequent at an early +age among ordinary working men and peasants than among the 200 male +criminals he examined: thus, between the ages of 30 to 33 it was 60 per +cent. for the former, only 12 per cent. for the latter. This does not hold +true for criminal women, who become grey more quickly than ordinary women. +The male criminal in this respect resembles the epileptic, and especially +the cretin, in whom grey hair is seldom seen. Baldness, Ottolenghi shows, +is very rare, comparatively, in the criminal, in relation not only to the +normal man but even to the epileptic and the cretin. In this respect the +criminal differs greatly from the ordinary professional man, in whom +baldness is frequently found.[27] + +To the existing statistics of the colour of hair among criminals, taken as +a whole, it is not possible at present to attach much value. There is no +uniform system of description and nomenclature; it is difficult to make +full allowance for ethnic divergence, and there rarely exists an adequate +standard of comparison for the normal persons of corresponding race. Of +129 persons “wanted” at Scotland Yard, I find that 45 have “dark brown” +hair, and of these 17 (_i.e._, 37.7 per cent.) are described as +“dangerous,” “desperate,” “expert,” or “notorious”; 46 have “brown” hair, +and of these 14 (_i.e._, 30 per cent.) are “dangerous,” etc.; 11 are +“dark” (9) or “black” (2), and of these 3 (_i.e._, 27.2 per cent.) are +“dangerous”; 27 are described as “light brown,” “light,” “sandy,” “fair,” +“auburn” (one, a woman), “red” (one, a man, who is “dangerous”), and of +these 9 (_i.e._, 33.3 per cent.) are “dangerous,” etc. This gives a +proportion of red-haired persons about the same, according to my +observations, as is found among middle-class men in the city, but +considerably lower than is found, according to Dr. Beddoe, the chief +authority on this subject (in his _Races of Britain_), among the lower +classes in London--_i.e._, about 4 per cent. This is the class from which +the criminals in question were chiefly drawn, but they do not exclusively +belong to London; many come from the northern towns, and in many of these, +Leeds, for instance,[28] according to my observations, the proportion of +red-haired persons is decidedly larger than in London, and certainly not +smaller. + +It is interesting to compare these statistics of the hair of London +criminals with a body of statistics concerning the colour of the hair of +1220 insane persons (omitting the grey-haired) in the New Brunswick +Asylum; although as the racial mixture is certainly not quite identical, +and the nomenclature probably varies, no strict comparison is possible. Of +these 1220 insane persons the hair of 1050 is described as “dark,” “dark +brown,” “brown,” while 170 have “light,” “auburn,” or “red” hair. One +person in seven among the insane persons has fair hair, one in five among +criminals; one person in fifty among the insane has red hair, one in 129 +among the criminals; one in forty among the insane has auburn hair, one in +129 among the criminals. So that while the proportion of fair-haired is +distinctly smaller among the insane, the proportion of red-haired and +auburn-haired is very decidedly larger than among the criminals. + +So far as exact evidence on the colour of the hair goes, it points chiefly +to a relative deficiency of red-haired persons among criminals. This may +perhaps be accounted for. There seems to be a lessened power of resistance +to disease among persons of brilliant pigmentation. The extensive +anthropological statistics of the American War showed a very marked +inferiority on the part of fair persons. These statistics have been +criticised by De Candolle, who believes, however, that even with +deductions they may probably still be accepted. Our evidence as to the +proportion of bright-haired people in lunatic asylums seems to point in +this direction. These red-haired people, with their “sanguine” temperament +of body, are peculiarly susceptible to zymotic disease; they take scarlet +fever, for instance, very easily, and suffer from it severely. Among the +manifold risks of a criminal life the brightly pigmented person, with his +sensitive vascular system, seems to be soon eliminated. + + +§ 4. _Criminal Physiognomy._ + +The science of physiognomy is still in a vague and rudimentary condition, +although the art has long been practised with more or less success. There +are, for instance, a large number of proverbs in which some of the most +recent results reached by the criminal anthropologists of to-day were long +ages back crystallised by the popular intelligence. Such are the Roman +saying, “Little beard and little colour; there is nothing worse under +heaven;” the French, “God preserve me from the beardless man;” the Tuscan, +“Salute from afar the beardless man and the bearded woman;” the Venetian, +“Trust not the woman with a man’s voice.” + +Many of the old physiognomists, especially the two greatest, Dalla Porta +and Lavater, tell us how they immediately recognised criminals, although +they sometimes ludicrously failed; and Lavater once mistook the portrait +of an executed assassin for Herder’s. A criminal anthropologist of to-day, +Professor Enrico Ferri, declares that out of several hundred soldiers whom +he examined, he found one, and one only, whom his face declared to be a +murderer; he was told that this man had, in fact, been found guilty of +murder. Garofalo, the Neapolitan jurist, observes that he is scarcely +deceived twice out of ten times. Nor is this acuteness of perception by +any means confined to skilled observers. It is very commonly found among +women. Many persons, on first meeting an individual, are conscious of an +unfavourable impression which they succeed in out-living, but which is +subsequently justified. Sometimes the revealing glance is found, perhaps +with a shock of horror, in a face already familiar. It is a mistake to +attempt to stifle such instinctive impressions as irrational. They are +part of the organised experiences of the race, and, subject to +intellectual control, they are legitimate guides to conduct. + +Professor Lombroso tells us that his mother, who had always lived far from +the world, was twice able to discover the criminal character of young +people whom as yet no one had suspected. A more curious example, he goes +on to remark, occurred in connection with the murderer Francesconi. There +was nothing remarkable about him, nothing to indicate ferocity or a temper +unlike that of other people; his beard was abundant and forehead high; one +just perceived a slight degree of prognathism and some prominence of the +frontal eminences. Yet years before his crime, a young girl of sixteen +(afterwards the Countess della Rocca), who had never quitted the paternal +home, and had no experience of life, refused to speak to him when every +one welcomed him on account of his wit. When asked why she treated him as +though he were a scoundrel, she replied: “If he is not a murderer he will +become one.” When Lombroso afterwards asked her by what sign she was +guided to this too speedily verified prophecy, she replied: “By his eyes.” +Lombroso once asked an intelligent schoolmistress to submit to thirty-two +young girls twenty portraits of thieves and twenty of great men. Eighty +per cent. of these children recognised the first as bad people, the second +as good. On another occasion he showed two hundred photographs of youths +to three medical men, and they all selected one as of the criminal type; a +little girl of twelve also selected the same. This youth had never +appeared in a court of justice, but he had cruelly betrayed those who had +assisted him to obtain a good position in life. He was not legally a +criminal, but, as Lombroso remarks, he was so anthropologically. + +Beautiful faces, it is well known, are rarely found among criminals. The +prejudice against the ugly and also against the deformed is not without +sound foundation. What Hepworth Dixon wrote in 1850 on this point is still +of general application in all civilised countries:--“The population of +Millbank is always numerous and always changing; but its character remains +substantially the same. Year after year the visitor might drop in and see +no difference. There is a certain monotony and family likeness in the +criminal countenance which is at once repulsive and interesting. No person +can be long in the habit of seeing masses of criminals together without +being struck with the sameness of their appearance. A handsome face is a +thing rarely seen in a prison; and never in a person who has been a +law-breaker from childhood. Well-formed heads, round and massive, denoting +intellectual power, may be seen occasionally, but a pleasing, well-formed +face, never.” + +In looking through the large number of photographs in Lombroso’s great +work, _L’Uomo Delinquente_, very few pleasant faces can be found. The two +or three attractive ones are those of women in whom the glow of youth, +plumpness, and abundant hair serve as a disguise to features that will +scarcely bear examination. The proportion of good-looking faces among the +excellent photographs in Inspector Byrnes’ _Professional Criminals of +America_, is much larger. As the able chief of the Detective Department of +New York, who, however, distinctly recognises a criminal type of face, +remarked to a visitor: “Look through the pictures in the Rogues’ Gallery +and see how many rascals you find there who resemble the best people in +the country. Why, you can find some of them, I daresay, sufficiently like +personal acquaintances to admit of mistaking the one for the other.” +Those, however, belong to the aristocracy of crime; they are criminals by +calculation; they have achieved a certain amount of success, and a +passable face is part of their stock-in-trade. Yet even among these the +proportion of faces that will bear examination is by no means large. + +Émile Gautier, who was with Prince Krapotkine in the Lyons prison, remarks +that he is not acquainted with the anatomical peculiarities of criminals, +but that he knows that prisoners are not like the rest of the world. +“Their cringing and timid ways, the mobility and cunning of their looks, a +something feline about them, something cowardly, humble, suppliant, and +crushed, makes them a class apart. One would say, dogs who had been +whipped; hardly, here and there, a few energetic and brutal heads of +rebels.” + +A curious fixed look of the eye has often been considered a characteristic +mark of, more especially, the instinctive criminal, a mark which cannot be +disguised. “I do not need to see the whole of a criminal’s face,” said +Vidocq, “to recognise him as such; it is enough for me to catch his eye.” +Lombroso finds that the eyes of assassins resemble those of the feline +animals at the moment of ambush or struggle; he has often observed it +when the man has been making a muscular effort, as in compressing a +dynamometer. Sometimes this feline and ferocious glance alternates with a +gentle, almost feminine gaze; this combination giving them a strange power +of fascination which has often been exercised on women. + +Insistence on the feline aspect is very frequent among those who describe +criminals. Thus, for instance, Professor Sergi:--“I have had occasion +lately to observe a homicide, aged fifteen, who three months before +committing this murder had attempted another, and at another time showed +his ferocious nature by attacking a cow with a bill-hook and wounding it +in several places. He has been condemned to eleven years’ imprisonment, is +well developed for his age, and apparently has no morphological +abnormalities, but he is prognathous, his nose is depressed, and all the +lower part of the face, from the upper jaw down, has a savage cast. What +most distinguishes him is his look; his eye is cruel and feline in the +true sense of the word. Reserved, taciturn, even when he was free, now +that he is in prison he has the appearance of a wild beast, the glance of +a tiger.” + +An interesting point in connection with the criminal physiognomy is that +it is to a large extent independent of nationality. The German criminal is +not very unlike the Italian, nor is the French unlike the English +criminal. M. Joly remarks, “I should say that in M. A. Bertillon’s office +I was shown nearly sixty photographs of Irish, English, and American +thieves. It would have been difficult in many cases to discern the +Anglo-Saxon rather than any other physiognomy.” + +There is, in the opinion of many of the Italian criminal anthropologists, +a special physiognomy for different crimes, though this statement is +qualified by the well-known fact that quite different crimes may be +committed by the same person. Dr. Marro, in his _Caratteri dei +Delinquenti_, describes no fewer than eleven different classes of +criminals, though the distinctions are not all physiognomical. Professor +Lombroso’s descriptions are however the most vigorous and picturesque, +though it is scarcely possible to receive them without qualification. +Thieves he describes as frequently remarkable for the mobility of their +features and of their hands; the eyes are small and very restless; the +eyebrows thick and close; the nose often crooked or incurved; the beard +thin; the forehead nearly always narrow and receding; the complexion pale +or yellowish, and incapable of blushing. In those guilty of sexual +offences Lombroso finds the eyes nearly always bright; the voice either +rough or cracked; the face generally delicate, except in the development +of the jaws, and the lips and eyelids swollen; occasionally they are +humpbacked or otherwise deformed. Sometimes in incendiaries Lombroso has +noted a peculiar delicacy of the skin, an infantile aspect, and abundance +of hair, occasionally resembling a woman’s. The eye of the habitual +homicide is glassy, cold, and fixed; his nose is often aquiline, beaked, +reminding one of a bird of prey, always voluminous; the jaws are strong; +the ears long; the cheek-bones large; the hair dark, curling, abundant; +the beard often thin; the canine teeth much developed; the lips thin; +nystagmus frequent; also spasmodic contractions on one side of the face, +by which the canine teeth are exposed. The forger and sharper, on the +other hand, has frequently a singular air of _bonhomie_, a kind of +clerical appearance, which is indeed necessary in his business, because it +inspires confidence. Some have angelic faces; others are small, pale, and +haggard. The poisoner also frequently has a peculiarly benevolent aspect. +“In general,” Lombroso concludes, “born criminals have projecting ears, +thick hair, a thin beard, projecting frontal eminences, enormous jaws, a +square and projecting chin, large cheek-bones, and frequent gesticulation. +It is, in short, a type resembling the Mongolian, or sometimes the +Negroid.” + +It is very interesting to compare this concluding remark with some +observations made by Dr. Langdon Down, who has carefully studied and +endeavoured to classify the facial characteristics of idiots. Dr. Down +finds a resemblance between feeble-minded children and the various ethnic +types of the human family; he specially refers both to a Mongolian and a +Negroid type. Just as Professor Lombroso finds the Mongolian type most +common among his criminals, so Dr. Down finds it most common among his +idiots: “more than 10 per cent. of congenital feeble-minded children are +typical Mongols. Their resemblance is infinitely greater to one another +than to the members of their own families.” Their characteristics are very +marked: the hair is brownish (not black, as in the Mongol), straight, and +sparse, the face flat and broad, the cheeks rounded and widened laterally, +the eyes obliquely placed, and the fissure between the eyelids very +narrow, the forehead wrinkled transversely, the lips large and thick, the +nose small, the skin tawny. In Dr. Down’s Negroid type of idiot there are +characteristic cheek-bones, prominent eyes, puffy lips, retreating chins, +woolly but not black hair, and no pigmentation of skin. These points of +resemblance are of considerable interest if we are of opinion that the +instinctive criminal is best defined as a moral idiot. + +As to the causes and indelibility of the criminal expression there is much +divergence of opinion. Certain writers have spoken too incautiously on +this point. Thus Professor Sergi, in the description of the homicidal lad, +already quoted in part, goes on to remark: “In him nothing is acquired, +everything is congenital.” And Maudsley, in a sombre and powerful +description of the criminal physiognomy which has often been quoted, +speaks of it as branded by the hand of nature. “Everything is congenital,” +says Professor Sergi; yet we rarely hear of a baby who looks round from +its mother’s breast with fierce and feline air. We have to distinguish +between the anatomical physiognomy and the expression or _mimique_. To the +ordinary observer the latter is far more striking; he notices at once if a +countenance is sad or merry, angry or good-tempered, cowed or elate; he +does not so readily observe the shape of the jaws, or the cut of the ears, +or the lines of the forehead, yet such marks as these are alone strictly +organic and can safely be called congenital. + +M. Joly cites some interesting examples of discrepancy in the descriptions +of the same criminal under varying conditions, even when the descriptions +are the work of good observers. Some years ago a youth of nineteen, named +Menesclou, was executed for having violated and killed a little girl, whom +he afterwards cut up and burnt. A journalist on the staff of the _Figaro_, +whose reports are considered very exact, thus described him at the trial: +“Imagine a sort of abortion, bent and wrinkled, with earthy complexion, +stealthy eyes, a face gnawed by scrofula, of cunning, dissipated, and +cruel aspect. The forehead is low, the beard sparse and slovenly; the +hair, black and thrown backwards, reaches to the shoulders; it is a head +absolutely repulsive.” On the other hand, the chaplain of the prison, the +Abbé Crozes, thus wrote:--“Menesclou by no means resembles the portraits +which the journalists have drawn of him. Far from being repulsive, +hideous, repugnant, he had a sympathetic and prepossessing physiognomy, +the air of a young man who has been well brought up, a gentle, honest, +_naïve_ face; he looked, to me, like a page in a good house.” + +In another example the varying descriptions have the advantage of being +written by the same person, the Abbé Moreau, successor to the Abbé Crozes +as chaplain to the Roquette Prison, and author of the valuable and +interesting book, _Le Monde des Prisons_. “At the trial of Campi,” he +wrote, “I had only perceived a coarse demoniac, brutal, cynical, making +violent repartees. His repellant head was photographed on my memory; a +slovenly beard framing a yellow, bilious face, the muscles of a beast of +prey, and, lighting up the livid features with sinister gleam, two small +piercing mobile eyes, of a ferocity which I could scarcely bear to see. +Campi left on me the most melancholy impression; his head had appeared to +me enormous; his shoulders of extraordinary breadth.” Here is another +portrait by the same hand of Campi as he appeared in prison:--“I had now +before me a young man of ordinary size, slim rather than broad, with a +calm face lighted by a good-natured smile; the eyes had lost their +ferocity. He approached me with a certain timidity, holding his cap in his +hand; and waited respectfully until I spoke to him.” + +It is clear that several factors go to make up our impressions of +physiognomy. It is well known that it is difficult to estimate the +dimensions of an individual seen alone at a distance, whether a criminal +at the bar or an actor on the stage. An actor off the stage is as +commonplace as a criminal in the streets. Add to this the horror of the +spectator, to whose mental vision the crime is present, and the probable +perturbation of the criminal whose fate is being argued. Would the +conscientious reporter of the _Figaro_ have written such a description had +he simply met Menesclou as a stranger in the streets? And would the worthy +Abbé’s impression of Campi have changed so greatly if the latter had not, +when in complete command of himself, chosen to appear in an attitude of +respectful humility? + +In the Middle Ages there was a law by which, when two persons were +suspected of a crime, the ugliest was to be selected for punishment. At +the present day judges are, consciously or unconsciously, influenced by +physiognomy, and ordinary human beings, who also in a humble way sit in +judgment on their fellows, are influenced in the same manner. The modern +criminal anthropologists, with all their minute and patient +investigations, have not yet, however, succeeded in making criminal +physiognomy a very exact science, and the more criminal amongst us may +still find consolation in the reflection that there are no unfailing +criteria by which our crimes may be read upon our faces. + + +§ 5. _The Body and Viscera._ + +Notwithstanding their agility and spasmodic activity, the muscular system +of criminals is generally feeble. Such few observations as have yet been +made show that muscular anomalies are found with remarkable frequency. +Thus the investigations of Guerra on the bodies of 12 normal persons and +18 criminals, showed 11 anomalous muscular conditions in the latter as +against 5 in the former. + +Lacassagne some years ago pointed out the remarkable length of the +extended arms (_la grande envergure_). Although many observers refer to +this peculiarity, and in many isolated cases it is marked and doubtless +connected with the agility of criminals, as among some lower races and the +apes, I am not acquainted with any extended series of observations in +which criminals and normal persons are fairly compared in this respect. +Marro’s series, although the normal persons are in too small number, as he +himself points out, is as reliable as any, and does not in the average +show any preponderance of long-armed individuals among criminals. There +is, however, reason to believe that individuals with exceptionally long +arms are more often met with among criminals. + +“Among the inmates of the Elmira Reformatory,” remarks Dr. H. Wey, “the +greatest physical deficiency and least resistive power is found in the +respiratory apparatus. Pigeon-breasts, imperfectly developed chests, and +stooping shoulders abound. During a period of eight years, with 26 deaths, +13, or 50 per cent., were from diseases of the chest, not including +affections of the heart.” + +In his answers to my Questions a prison surgeon remarks, “Many men have +large nipples and large well-marked areolæ. This is often very +remarkable.” I am not aware that this has been noticed by any other +observer, and the point deserves further examination. + +Heart disease is common among criminals. Out of 54 examined by Flesch, 20 +per cent. died of heart disease, 50 per cent. showed affections of the +heart. Valvular insufficiency and cardiac atrophy seem to be remarkably +prevalent. Penta found endarteritis and atheroma in 82 of his 184 +instinctive criminals, _i.e._ 44 per cent., although many of them were +young. The condition, he says, was diffused and pronounced; 20 of these 82 +showed aortic insufficiency. It may be noted that arterial anomalies are +extremely frequent. Thus Guerra found 14 arterial anomalies in his 18 +criminals as against 4 in his 12 normal persons. Heart disease is also +common among the insane. Its tendency to produce mental alterations has +often been noted; pride, egotism, and an inclination to violence are +found, especially (according to Witkowski) among those affected with +ventricular hypertrophy; with aortic disease, neurotic and hysterical +states; with mitral disease, melancholy and attacks of violence. This is +not surprising when we remember the intimate connection that subsists +normally between the heart and the brain, the vascular system forming, as +it were, the basis of the brain. + +The sexual organs in women criminals very frequently reveal pathological +conditions. Undescended testis has been frequently found by one of the +medical officers who answered my Questions. Unusual size of penis by +another. It is interesting to note in this connection that Drs. +Bourneville and Sollier found exaggerated development of the glans penis +extremely common among the idiots at the Bicêtre, and that among 728 +individuals examined they found no fewer than 262 presenting anomalies of +the sexual organs, an enormous proportion when compared with the ordinary +population.[29] Ottolenghi believes that “on the whole anomalies of the +genital organs have in sexual offenders no small diagnostic importance, +especially when united to other characters which distinguish them from the +honest and from criminals in general--as the greater frequency of fair +hair, of malformed ears, of bichromatism of the iris, of blue eyes, of +twisted noses, of facial asymmetry, of voluminous lower jaws, and of +various neuroses, especially epilepsy.”[30] + +It may be noted here that Marro and Ottolenghi have recently studied +metabolism in criminals. The chief point that comes out is an augmented +elimination of phosphoric acid in the urine. The same has been observed in +chronic alcoholism. These researches will, no doubt, be continued.[31] + + +§ 6. _Heredity._ + +The detailed study of criminal heredity and of criminal habit, or +recidivism, scarcely forms part of criminal anthropology. It is an +important branch of criminal sociology. But the facts of heredity form +part of the evidence in favour of the reality of the criminal +anthropologist’s conclusions, and it is not possible to ignore them here +entirely. Moreover, the attitude of society towards the individual +criminal and his peculiarities must be to some extent determined by our +knowledge of criminal heredity. + +The hereditary character of crime, and the organic penalties of natural +law, were recognised even in remote antiquity. They were involved in the +old Hebrew conception, which seems to have played a vital part in Hebrew +life, of a God who visited the sins of the parents upon the children unto +the third and fourth generation. We know also the story in Aristotle of +the man who, when his son dragged him by his hair to the door, +exclaimed--“Enough, enough, my son; I did not drag my father beyond this.” +And Plutarch puts the doctrine of heredity in a shape that is both ancient +and modern--“That which is engendered is made of the very substance of the +generating being, so that he bears in him something which is very justly +punished or recompensed for him, for this something is he.” Or +again--“There is between the generating being and the generated a sort of +hidden identity, capable of justly committing the second to all the +consequences of an action committed by the first.” + +There are two factors, it must be remembered, in criminal heredity, as we +commonly use the expression. There is the element of innate disposition, +and there is the element of contagion from social environment. Both these +factors clearly had their part in Sbro ... who is regarded by Lombroso as +the classical type of “moral insanity.” His grandfather had committed +murder from jealousy; his father, condemned for rape, had killed a woman +to test a gun. He in his turn killed his father and his brother. +Practically, it is not always possible to disentangle these two factors; a +bad home will usually mean something bad in the heredity in the strict +sense. Frequently the one element alone, whether the heredity or the +contagion, is not sufficient to determine the child in the direction of +crime. A case given by Prosper Lucas seems to show this: “In November 1845 +the Assize Court of the Seine condemned three members out of five of a +family of thieves, the Robert family. This case presented a circumstance +worthy of remark. The father had not found among all his children the +disposition that he would have desired; he had to use force with his wife +and the two younger children, who up to the last were rebellious to his +infamous orders. The eldest daughter, on the other hand, followed, as if +by instinct, her father’s example, and was as ardent and violent as he in +attempting to bend the family to his odious tastes. But in one part of the +family the instinct was lacking; they inherited from their mother.” + +The influence of heredity, even in the strict sense of the word, in the +production of criminals, does not always lie in the passing on of +developed proclivities. Sometimes a generation of criminals is merely one +stage in the progressive degeneration of a family. Sometimes crime seems +to be the method by which the degenerating organism seeks to escape from +an insane taint in the parents. Of the inmates of the Elmira Reformatory, +499, or 13.7 per cent., have been of insane or epileptic heredity. Of 233 +prisoners at Auburn, New York, 23.03 per cent. were clearly of neurotic +(insane, epileptic, etc.) origin; in reality many more. Virgilio found +that 195 out of 266 criminals were affected by diseases that are usually +hereditary. Rossi found 5 insane parents to 71 criminals, 6 insane +brothers and sisters, and 14 cases of insanity among more distant +relatives. Kock found morbid inheritance in 46 per cent. of criminals. +Marro, who has examined the matter very carefully, found the proportion 77 +per cent., and by taking into consideration a large range of abnormal +characters in the parents, the proportion of criminals with bad heredity +rose to 90 per cent. He found that an unusually large proportion of the +parents had died from cerebro-spinal diseases, and from phthisis. Sichard, +examining nearly 4000 German criminals in the prison of which he is +Director, found an insane, epileptic, suicidal, and alcoholic heredity in +36.8 per cent. incendiaries, 32.2 per cent. thieves, 28.7 per cent. sexual +offenders, 23.6 per cent. sharpers. Penta found among the parents of 184 +criminals only 4 to 5 per cent. who were quite healthy. + +Even when well-marked disease is absent in the parents, exhausting and +debilitating influences, age at time of conception and overwork, may play +a disastrous part. Dr. Langdon Down (_Mental Diseases of Childhood_) has +shown how the same influences play a part in the production of idiocy; +how, for instance, a man may during periods of strain and overwork +conceive idiot children, and at other periods healthy children. Marro has +made some interesting investigations into the ages of the father at the +period of conception of criminals, as compared with ordinary persons and +with the insane. He divided the fathers into three groups, according to +age at conception: the first included those in the period of immaturity, +which he reckoned as below 25 years of age; the second was the period of +maturity from 26 to 40; the third from 41 onwards, the period of +decadence. Plate VII. represents in a graphic form the percentage of +fathers belonging to each period in various groups; the first column in +each group representing the proportion of fathers belonging to the period +of immaturity, the second those belonging to the period of maturity, the +third those belonging to the period of decadence. It will be seen that the +largest proportion of immature parents is among the class of thieves, +although among the insane the proportion is still larger. More remarkable +is the abnormally large proportion of criminals with parents belonging to +the period of decadence. It is most marked among the murderers, 52.9 per +cent. of whose fathers had passed the period of maturity; but it is very +large also, exceeding the insane among those convicted of assault and +wounding (not represented in the Plate), and among sharpers. Sexual +offenders have the largest proportion of mature fathers, the smallest of +youthful fathers. Suspecting that among idiots a very large proportion of +elderly fathers would be found, I applied to Dr. Langdon Down, who has +kindly gone through the notes of one thousand cases, and confirmed this +suspicion. He finds that in 23 per cent. cases there has been a disparity +of age of more than ten years at the birth of the idiot child, the father +in nearly every case being the elder, and that in many cases this +disparity has reached more than 25 years. It appears, then, Dr. Down adds, +that the disparity of age is a factor in the production of idiocy. It may +be added that the elderly parent, by dying and leaving his children +young and unprotected, has also a social influence in the creation of +criminals. + +[Illustration: PLATE VII. + +RELATION OF AGE OF PARENTS IN NORMAL PERSONS, THE INSANE AND CRIMINAL.] + +It is interesting to compare these results with those of Korosi, Director +of the Hungarian Statistical Bureau, on the ordinary population. He has +investigated 24,000 cases, and found that the children of fathers below 20 +are of feeble constitution; that fathers aged from 25 to 40 produce the +strongest children, and that above 40 fathers tend to beget weak children. +The most healthy children have a mother below the age of 35; the children +born between 35 and 40 are 8 per cent. weaker; after 40, 10 per cent. +weaker. The children born of old fathers and young mothers, it should, +however, be added, are generally of strong constitution. If the parents +are of the same age the children are less robust. + +Such hereditary influences as these seem to have played a part in the +production of that typical criminal by instinct, T. G. Wainewright, who +appears to have had no criminals or lunatics among his ancestry. The +often-quoted case of the criminal family, first mentioned by Despine in +his _Psychologie Naturelle_, is interesting in this connection. Three +brothers, the sons of one Jean Chrétien, had children and grandchildren as +under-- + + {Jean-François, thief. + {Bénoît. + {Claire, thief. + Jean Joseph {Marie-Renée, thief. + {Marie-Rose, thief. + {Victor, thief. + {Victorine. ---- Victor, murderer. + + {François, murderer. + Thomas {Martin, murderer ---- (son, thief). + + Pierre--Jean-François, thief and murderer. + +Nothing is told us of the man and his three sons who produced this awful +brood, save that they were not themselves condemned criminals; but +whatever the influence was, it existed in all three of the brothers, who +each begat murderers and thieves. It is by subtle hereditary influences, +as well as by the instinctive habits of a lifetime, that we must explain +the influence of criminal contagion on men of honest life and clean +record. M. Émile Gautier, a political prisoner with Prince Krapotkine and +a number of French working-men in the great prison of Clairvaux, has +recorded an experience which is of interest in this connection. “Out of +fifty political prisoners,” he writes in his interesting and thoughtful +impressions published in the _Archives de l’Anthropologie Criminelle_ in +1888, “belonging to the average, or even the _élite_, of the working-class +population of a large town like Lyons, a good half-dozen will be found who +feel themselves at home in prison, and go immediately towards the +criminal-law prisoners, assuming at once, in virtue of I do not know what +equivocal predestination, their language, their appearance, their habits, +their mental dispositions, even the same negative morality, savagery, +treachery, artfulness, rapacity, and unnatural vice.” + +Alcoholism in either of the parents is one of the most fruitful causes of +crime in the child. To the drunkenness of Jupiter when Vulcan was +conceived the Romans attributed the deformity of that god; in the words of +the old Latin poet:-- + + “Quis nescit crudo distentum nectare quondam + Indulsisse Jovem Junoni; atque inde creatum + Vulcanum turpem, coelique ex arce ruendum?” + +There is to-day no doubt whatever that chronic alcoholism as well as +temporary intoxication at the time of conception modifies profoundly the +brain and nervous system of both parent and offspring. Some of the most +characteristic cases of instinctive criminality are solely or chiefly due +to alcoholism in one of the parents. When insanity and alcoholism are +combined in the parents, a rich and awful legacy of degeneration is left +to the offspring. Thus, one among many instances, Morel quotes a case in +which the father was alcoholic, the mother insane, and of the five +children one committed suicide, two became convicts, one daughter was mad, +and another semi-imbecile. Carefully-drawn statistics of the 4000 +criminals who have passed through Elmira, New York, show drunkenness +clearly existing in the parents in 38.7 per cent., and probably in 11.1 +per cent. more. Out of seventy-one criminals whose ancestry Rossi was able +to trace, in twenty the father was a drunkard, in eleven the mother. Marro +found that on an average 41 per cent. of the criminals he examined had a +drunken parent, as against 16 per cent. for normal persons. + +Nor is it necessary that the alcoholism should be carried so far as to +produce great obvious injury to the parent. The action of the poison may +be slow and carried on from generation to generation. The fathers eat sour +grapes; the children’s teeth are set on edge. + +The relation of alcoholism to criminality is by no means so simple as is +sometimes thought; alcoholism is an effect as well as a cause. It is part +of a vicious circle. For a well-conditioned person of wholesome heredity +to become an inebriate is not altogether an easy matter. It is facilitated +by a predisposition, and alcoholism becomes thus a symptom as well as a +cause of degeneration. The conclusions of Dr. Crothers, who has devoted +considerable study to this subject, are worthy of attention. He believes +that we do not sufficiently study the origin of inebriety. His conclusions +are--(1) that inebriety is itself evidence of more or less unsoundness; +(2) in a large proportion of cases it is only a sign of slow and insidious +brain disease; (3) when crime is committed by inebriates, the probability +of mental disease is very strong; (4) using spirits to procure +intoxication for the purpose of committing crime is evidence of the most +dangerous form of reasoning mania. The crime and the inebriety are only +symptoms of disease and degeneration, “whose footprints can be traced back +from stage to stage.”[32] It may be added that the danger of alcoholism, +from the present point of view, lies not in any mysterious prompting to +crime which it gives, but in the manner in which the poison lets loose the +individual’s natural or morbid impulses, whatever these may be. + +If we set aside these slow and subtle causes and symptoms of +degeneration--causes which, while they may have long been recognised, are +only now beginning to be understood--there is no doubt whatever that the +criminal parent tends to produce a criminal child. There are, as Vidocq +said, families in which crime is transmitted from generation to +generation, and which seem to exist merely in order to prove the truth of +the old proverb: _bon chien chasse de race_. The investigations at Elmira +showed that in 51.8 per cent. the home was “positively bad,” and only +“good” in 8.3 per cent. A large number of the criminals investigated by +Rossi (_Studio sopra una Centuria di Criminali_) belonged to criminal +families. Two typical examples may be given:--N. N., condemned for fraud +and violence; father, alcoholic, convicted of fraud; mother, healthy; six +brothers, died young; one brother, a monster; another brother, born with +webbed fingers; another brother, highway-robber; another brother, +convicted of wounding; two sisters, one insane, the other a prostitute. R. +S., a thief, camorrista, convicted of wounding, etc; father, convicted of +wounding; paternal uncle, a thief; mother, a drunkard, convicted for fraud +and wounding; maternal grandfather, insane; maternal uncles, camorrista; +one brother, pickpocket, who five times feigned madness; another brother, +camorrista, convicted of fraud; another, thief; another, receiver; +another, camorrista and thief; a sister, honest and healthy. + +Sometimes the criminal tradition is carried on through many generations +and with great skill, a kind of professional caste being formed. The +Johnson family of counterfeiters in America is an example of this. The +grandfather was a famous counterfeiter in his day; the next generation +were well known to the police; in the third generation criminal audacity +and skill appear to have reached a very high degree in seven brothers and +sisters, one of them, especially, being considered one of the most expert +counterfeiters of the day; he has spent a large part of his life in +various prisons. + +The so-called “Jukes” family of America is the largest criminal family +known, and its history, which has been carefully studied, is full of +instruction.[33] The ancestral breeding-place of this family was in a +rocky inaccessible spot in the state of New York. Here they lived in log +or stone houses, sleeping indiscriminately round the hearth in winter, +like so many radii, with their feet to the fire. The ancestor of the +family, a descendant of early Dutch settlers, was born here between 1720 +and 1740. He is described as living the life of a backwoodsman, “a hunter +and fisher, a hard drinker, jolly and companionable, averse to steady +toil,” working by fits and starts. This intermittent work is +characteristic of that primitive mode of life led among savages by the men +always, if not by the women, and it is the mode of life which the +instinctive criminal naturally adopts. This man lived to old age, when he +became blind, and he left a numerous, more or less illegitimate, progeny. +Two of his sons married two out of five more or less illegitimate sisters; +these sisters were the “Jukes.” The descendants of these five sisters have +been traced with varying completeness through five subsequent generations. +The number of individuals thus traced reaches 709; the real aggregate is +probably 1200. This vast family, while it has included a certain +proportion of honest workers, has been on the whole a family of criminals +and prostitutes, of vagabonds and paupers. Of all the men not twenty were +skilled workmen, and ten of these learnt their trade in prison; 180 +received out-door relief to the extent of an aggregate of 800 years; or, +making allowances for the omissions in the record, 2300 years.[34] Of the +709 there were 76 criminals, committing 115 offences. The average of +prostitution among the marriageable women down to the sixth generation was +52.40 per cent.; the normal average has been estimated at 1.66 per cent. +There is no more instructive study in criminal heredity than that of the +Jukes family. + + +§ 7. _Tattooing._ + +The practice of tattooing is very common among criminals, and is +frequently carried to an extraordinary extent, twenty or thirty designs +being occasionally found on the same subject. Lombroso was the first to +point out the full biological and psychical significance of this practice. + +[Illustration: Arms of criminal whose whole body was more or less +tattooed. (Lombroso.)] + +Alborghetti found 15 per cent. of the inmates of the prison at Bergamo +tattooed. Lombroso examined 100 children at the reformatory at Turin, and +found 40 of them tattooed. Among 235 other youthful criminals he found 32 +per cent. tattooed. Among the ordinary population tattooed children are +very rarely seen. Rossi found 23 tattooed among the 100 criminals whom he +has so carefully studied. Lacassagne among 800 convicted French soldiers +found 40 per cent. tattooed.[35] + +The designs vary in character, but certain emblems are frequently +repeated. Tardieu out of 160 designs found 20 relating to love, 20 to war, +8 to religion, 8 to occupation, 6 to obscene practices. + +[Illustration: A French glazier, thief, deserter from army; had been in +Africa. The chief figure on breast is St. George. (Lombroso.)] + +Dr. Greaves, the medical officer of Derby Prison, has kindly noted details +of the tattoo marks observed on the prisoners received there during three +months. Out of 555 persons admitted, 41 (40 men and one woman) were +tattooed; _i.e._, 7.3 per cent. The tattooed individuals were chiefly +soldiers, with a few miners and sailors. The favourite devices were +flags, ships, anchors, female figures, bracelets, and initials. There were +two inscriptions, “Love” and “Jesus wept”; and among the less common +devices were a crucifix, Maltese crosses, a ballet girl, a mermaid, and +Chinese flower-pots. The most numerous and complex figures were all found +on soldiers. + +The designs most frequently found by Rossi among his 23 tattooed criminals +were--portrait of mistress or nude woman (8); initials, either of self, +mistress, or friend (9); a transfixed heart, an emblem sometimes of love, +sometimes of vengeance (5); flowers, comets, swords, serpents, etc. + +Tattooed inscriptions, as noted by Lacassagne, who has given special +attention to this matter, are frequently characteristic of the criminal’s +mental attitude; here are a few of the commonest: “Son of misfortune,” “No +luck,” “Death to unfaithful women,” “Vengeance,” “Son of disgrace,” “Born +under an unlucky star,” “Child of joy,” “The past has deceived me.” + +The favourite position for tattooing, among the ordinary population, is +the front of the forearm; to a less degree the shoulders, the chest +(especially sailors), or the fingers. All who are tattooed on the back or +the sexual organs (according to Lombroso) have without exception either +been among the Pacific islands or sojourned in a prison. The greater +number of tattooed criminals are naturally found among recidivists and +instinctive criminals, especially those who have committed crimes against +the person. The fewest are found among swindlers and forgers, the most +intelligent class of criminals. There is evidence that criminals +frequently refrain from tattooing themselves because they know these +marks form an easy method of recognition in the hands of the police. It +appears that, in Italy at all events, the connection between tattoo marks +and crime has been of late recognised by the common soldiers. In 1848 the +soldiers of the Piedmontese army considered tattooing a mark of virility. +Recently, when Lombroso asked a soldier why he was not tattooed, he +replied: “Because those are the things that lead to the galleys;” and an +army doctor assured Lombroso that tattooed men were considered _a priori_ +as bad soldiers. + +[Illustration: PLATE VIII. + +Right arm of G., French thief, etc., expelled from France, and wandered in +Africa and Australia. (Lombroso.) + +M. J., French sailor and deserter; the nature of his crime is unknown. +(Lombroso.)] + +The causes that produce tattooing are doubtless of a complex kind. +Religion, formerly and still among some races a chief cause of the +practice, was up to 1688 practised at Bethlehem by the Christian pilgrims, +and still survives at Loretto. Of 102 tattooed criminals, 31 bore +religious emblems. Vengeance frequently leads to it among criminals, and +among the feebler ones the spirit of imitation. Idleness often explains it +among prisoners, shepherds, and sailors.[36] Vanity is almost as powerful +a cause among criminals as among savages. “The more one is tattooed,” said +a Neapolitan soldier to Rossi, “the more one is esteemed and feared by +one’s companions, because it shows greater progress in the path of +crime.” Higher emotions always play a considerable part; and recollections +of childhood and the memory of loved friends are thus recorded. Lacassagne +attributes considerable importance to tattooing as a species of heraldry +used by uneducated people, analogous to the banners and seals of +corporations. Erotic passion is a very frequent--probably the most +frequent--cause of tattooing. All sorts of symbols of love, from the +initials of the loved one to the grossest emblems of unnatural passion, +are very common. The tattoo designs among prostitutes are usually of this +character; and such emblems are common among pæderasts and tribades. Among +savages nudity is of course one of the predisposing causes, and the same +cause acts among sailors and prostitutes. Lombroso attaches prime +importance to atavism. In the strict sense of the word, however, I doubt +very much whether we can legitimately accept the atavistic explanation. +The criminal is exposed to many of the influences which lead the savage to +adopt the practice, the chief of which have been already enumerated; this +is a sufficient explanation of the similarity of habit, and it seems +scarcely accurate to describe it as atavism. It is better described as a +survival. “I regard it,” Lacassagne well says in his instructive work, +_Les Tatouages_, “as the uninterrupted and successive transformation of an +instinct. The construction and material expression of metaphor and +emblematic language were first adopted by the most elevated classes, who +had no other means of communicating or materialising their thoughts. +Little by little this method took refuge with those lower classes who +have as yet no better means of expressing what they feel and experience. +It is in these classes also that vanity, or the need of approbation, +predominates, and this has a marked influence in maintaining the custom.” + +Tattooing is exceedingly rare among women. Out of 300 women criminals at +Turin, Gamba found only five tattooed. Soresina, who examined 1000 +prostitutes at Milan, did not find one tattooed. Lombroso, out of 200 +criminal women, found only one tattooed; she came from Chioggia, was an +adultress who had killed her lover from jealousy, and she had associated +much with sailors.[37] + +Among the insane tattooing does not seem always to be uncommon. In the +lunatic asylum at Ancona, we learn from Dr. Riva,[38] out of 184 men and +147 women no fewer than 16.30 per cent. of the former, and 6.80 of the +latter, were tattooed. It is worthy of note that it was chiefly among the +more severe and incurable cases of mental degeneration (dementia, +alcoholism, epilepsy, congenital mental weakness) that these signs were +found. In character and position they differed from those usually found +among criminals, by being exclusively worked on the arms and hands, and +consisting only of religious symbols, especially the Madonna of Loretto. + + +§ 8. _Motor Activity._ + +Extraordinary and ape-like agility has frequently been noted among +criminals. Every one is familiar with the daring feats of agility by which +prisoners frequently escape scatheless from the hands of their guardians. +This characteristic appears to be sometimes favoured by unusual length of +arm. A thief, incendiary, violator, and murderer, examined by Marandon de +Monthyel, showed little abnormal or criminal in his physical character, +except an extraordinary agility. + +Left-handedness has, by instinct or from accurate observation, been +regarded with disfavour in the proverbial sayings of many nations. It is +decidedly common among criminals. Examining 81 normal persons, Marro found +70 right-handed, 7 left-handed, and 4 ambidextrous. Examining 190 +working-men, he only found 6 left-handed. Altogether the proportion of +normal left-handed and ambidextrous persons was 6.2 per cent. Among +criminals, on the other hand, with the single exception of highwaymen, the +proportion of left-handed and ambidextrous persons was in every case +higher. Among 40 assassins in 17.5 per cent.; among 7 incendiaries in 28.5 +per cent.; among 44 burglars in 18.1 percent. This corresponds with a +greater sensory obtuseness, which has also been observed on the right +side among criminals. It is also interesting to note the ambidextrous +tendency among children, savages, and idiots. + +With the dynamometer, also, there appears to be a slightly greater +prevalence of excess of the left hand over the right, judging from Marro’s +experiences. It may be of interest to note here that among normal persons +the proportion in which the left hand is stronger than the right is by no +means small. Thus at the International Exhibition in London in 1884 +observations made under Mr. Galton’s superintendence on 400 male +adults--artisans, clerks, professional men, etc.--between the ages of +twenty-three and twenty-six, showed that in 253 cases the right hand was +stronger than the left in squeezing power; in 147 the left was stronger; +in 28 both hands were equal. If we divide the individuals thus examined +according to occupation the results vary curiously. Of 18 chemists, in 12 +the right hand was stronger, in 5 the left, in 1 both were equal. Of 9 +carpenters and joiners, in 4 the right hand was stronger, in 3 the left, +in 2 both were equal. Of 87 clerks, in 52 the right hand was stronger, in +29 the left, in 6 both were equal. Of 9 medical men, in 5 the right hand +was stronger, in 4 the left. Of 7 clergymen and ministers, in 3 the right +hand was stronger, in 3 the left, in 1 both were equal. The high +proportion of right-handed squeezers among the chemists is no doubt due to +the effects of occupation, to the constant practice of gripping heavy +bottles with the right hand. Occupation also, no doubt, among the +carpenters and joiners, favours squeezing power in the left hand. The +factor of occupation is less obvious among clerks, but would no doubt +favour the right hand, and among these the proportion keeps very close to +the average among the 400. The doctors are almost as left-handed in this +respect as the carpenters, though the result can scarcely be influenced by +occupation; while the clergymen, who are certainly most free from the +influence of occupation in this respect, are the most left-handed of all, +although here the figures are too small to allow of any very reliable +results. + +It seems that sufficient care has not yet been taken to determine what +constitutes left-handedness. The relative strength of the two hands is not +enough to decide this, for mancinism, or left-sidedness, is a matter of +relative skill as well as of relative strength. It is quite possible for a +person to be left-handed in some respects, right-handed in others; thus +(as happens to be the case with the present writer) he may be right-handed +in regard to all those actions which are exercised habitually and +socially, or which are the result of training, and left-handed in all +other respects. In such a case there appears to be a natural tendency to +left-sidedness, which is controlled and concealed by training, but which +takes every opportunity to assert itself in more unguarded directions. It +appears to me that the act of throwing a stone, an act requiring delicate +nervous adjustment as well as muscular force, and which is not subjected +to the influence of artificial training, is for practical purposes the +most convenient and accurate test for determining left-handedness. This +was the test adopted by Clapham and Clarke; they found that 6 per cent. of +the 500 criminals examined were left-handed.[39] + +Ottolenghi has recently investigated the anatomical mancinism of +criminals. At the suggestion of Lombroso, he has measured with Bertillon’s +instruments, which give the maximum of precision, the length of the hands, +the middle fingers, and the feet in 100 criminals and 50 normal persons. +Differences of less than a millimetre he disregarded. He found that while +the right hand was longer in 14 per cent. of the normal persons, it was so +in only 5 per cent. of the criminals generally, and in none of the thieves +and pickpockets. In 35 per cent. of the pickpockets the left hand was +longer as against 11 per cent. in the normal persons. Very similar results +came out in regard to the fingers. In 38 per cent. of the normal persons +the right foot was longer, in only 27 per cent. of the criminals; in this +respect, however, the pickpockets (35 per cent.) most nearly approach the +normal, while those convicted of wounding, who in regard to the hand are +nearest to the normal, are in this respect farthest from the normal. In 15 +per cent. of the normal persons the left foot was longer, in 35 per cent. +of the criminals, including 55 per cent. of the cases for wounding, and in +56 per cent. of the sexual offenders. It should be added that this +anatomical mancinism is not necessarily related with motor mancinism.[40] + +Anomalies of the tendon reflex of the knee are very common among +criminals; they are either exaggerated or, very frequently, absent. +Lombroso found feeble tendon reflexes especially common among thieves, and +a very large proportion of exaggerated tendon reflexes among sexual +offenders. Marro also found the highest proportion of exaggerated +reflexes (the enormous proportion of 40 per cent.) among sexual offenders. +There was an alcoholic or insane parentage among 79 per cent. of those +with exaggerated reflexes. + + +§ 9. _Physical Sensibility._ + +The extent to which tattooing is carried out among criminals, sometimes +not sparing parts so sensitive as the sexual organs, which are rarely +touched even in extensive tattooing among barbarous races, serves to show +the deficient sensibility of criminals to pain.[41] The physical +insensibility of the criminal has indeed been observed by every one who is +familiar with prisons. In this respect the instinctive criminal resembles +the idiot to whom, as Galton remarks, pain is “a welcome surprise.” He may +even be compared with many lower races, such as those Maoris who did not +hesitate to chop off a toe or two, in order to be able to wear European +boots. Dr. Felkin found the maximum distance at which two points of a +compass could be distinguished at the tip of the tongue was in an average +European 1.1 mm., in a Soudanese 2.6 mm., in a negro 3 mm. + +Lauvergne mentions a convict, imprisoned for life, who smiled with +pleasure when, moxas having been applied to him, he saw his skin burning +and heard it crack. Sbro ... (who killed his brother and his father), +Lombroso’s favourite typical case of “moral insanity,” was found by +Tamburini and Seppilli to be without perception of pain when tested with +a needle. Other criminals have been found very deficient in sensibility to +the electric current. Dr. Nicolson remarked: “They are comparatively free +from that agitation and tremulousness which are so apt to arise under +circumstances involving suspense and painful foreboding. The prisoner with +the knowledge of a probable flogging on the morrow, instead of giving way +to restlessness and anxiety, maintains a calm and stolid behaviour.” It is +not uncommon to read in the newspapers of criminals who hold out their +hands to be handcuffed without the slightest trembling, and who eat +heartily on the eve of execution, or even while the jury above are still +deliberating on their fate. + +One of Rossi’s hundred criminals received when a child his father’s blows +“as caresses,” and he was able to walk with a dislocated foot from Genoa +to Novi (some thirty miles); another wounded himself severely and declared +that it gave him no pain. Dr. Penta, in the course of his elaborate +researches, found that the majority of his 184 instinctive criminals at +Santo Stefano were insensible to the pain of punctures, burns, cuts, and +even grave surgical operations. “I have extirpated tumours,” he remarks, +“of considerable size, in the back and the neck, without the necessity of +producing anæsthesia, and without causing pain; in a case of feigned +epilepsy ammonia to the nose caused no reflex phenomenon, and deep +puncture and burning of the skin produced no painful contraction.” + +This insensibility shows itself also in disvulnerability, or rapid +recovery from wounds, first pointed out by Benedikt, which appears to be a +frequently observed phenomenon among criminals; thus it had been noticed +by several of the medical officers of prisons who answered my +Questions.[42] In this respect the instinctive criminal resembles the +lower animals as well as the lower races of man; among the Egyptians, +Chinese, and Annamites, and other races, wounds heal much more rapidly +than in Europe. Thus Mr. Tregear remarks:--“I have seen a Maori speared +with a big rafting-spear (an iron-shod pole thicker than the wrist), the +point driven through the breast, just under the collar-bone, and coming +out at the back. In a week’s time he walked fifteen miles, crossing a +mountain range, the wound being healed.”[43] Benedikt speaks of a brigand +who, in a revolt of prisoners, had several vertebræ broken; all his wounds +healed, and the giant of former days became a dwarf, but he could work at +the forge with a heavy hammer with all his old vigour. Lombroso knew a +thief whose frontal bone was cloven laterally with a hatchet; in fifteen +days he was cured without any relapse. He speaks also of a murderer who, +when working as a mason, was reproved for some fault; he threw himself +from the third storey into the court; every one supposed he was killed, +but he got up, smiling, and asked to be allowed to continue work. A +pregnant woman performed on herself Cæsarean section with a kitchen knife, +subsequently killing the child; she recovered without dressings and +without fever. We hear also of a criminal with a fractured rib and +pleurisy who could hew wood and travel in a cart over rough mountain +roads. “Individuals who possess this quality,” Lombroso remarks, “consider +themselves privileged, and treat with contempt those who appear delicate +and sensitive. It is a pleasure to such men to torment others whom they +regard as inferior beings.” + +Though loud in their complaints of trivial ailments, they are often +unconscious of severe illness. At Chatham, in 1888, a prisoner dropped +down dead on returning from labour; both lungs were found in an early +stage of pneumonia, and death was probably due to syncope; he had made no +complaints to any one. Prisoners will inflict severe injuries on +themselves in order to gain some very trifling object. At Chatham, in +1871-72, 841 voluntary wounds or contusions are recorded; 27 prisoners +voluntarily fractured a limb, and 17 of them had to submit to amputation; +62 tried to mutilate themselves, and 101 produced wounds by means of +corrosive substances. Lombroso found the general sensibility decreased in +38 out of 66. Working with Du-Bois Reymond’s electrical apparatus, in +conjunction with Marro, he found the sensibility of the criminals much +inferior to that of the normal persons examined. Swindlers possessed much +greater sensibility than murderers and thieves. Marro found sensibility, +measured by an esthesiometer, most obtuse in murderers and incendiaries. +Similar results were obtained by Ramlot, in reference to tactile +sensibility; he examined 103 criminals and 27 normal persons, and found +obtusity in 44 per cent. of the former, and in only 29 per cent. of the +latter.[44] It should be noted that cases of excessive sensibility, due +either to extreme pusillanimity, or to some morbid condition of the skin +or brain, are also found among criminals. + +The eyesight of criminals was found by Bono to be superior to the normal. +He examined 190 youthful delinquents, and compared them with over 100 +youths of similar age in an agricultural institute, the examination in all +cases being made under the same conditions. The visual acuity of 49 per +cent. of the criminals was superior to 1.5 Snellen; only 31 per cent. of +the honest youths possessed an equal acuteness. + +Ottolenghi obtained similar results.[45] He examined 100 criminals with +Snellen’s types in the open air, using various precautions to ensure +uniformity and accuracy. The results were-- + + Visus (average) for 82 thieves = 1.8 + " " 18 homicides = 2.2 + " " 100 criminals = 2.0 + +In one of the homicides sight was exceedingly keen (V = 3). He examined 15 +warders, between the ages of 27 and 45, under the same conditions, and +found vision = 1.5. Further observations on this point are needed, as +previous observers (Bielakoff, for instance) have found the sight of +criminals inferior to the normal. If Ottolenghi’s results are confirmed by +extended observation, there is an interesting analogy on this point +between criminals and many lower races. Thus examinations by Seggel in +1881 yielded the following results-- + + Terra del Fuegians V = 5 + Nubians V = 3 + Georgians V = 1¾ + +while among German and Russian soldiers the average varied between 1⅖ and +0.95. + +Ottolenghi also found colour-blindness very rare; he met with one case +(green-blindness) among 460 criminals tested with Holmgren’s wools. This +result also corresponds with examinations of lower races, such as +Samoyeds, Lapps, Esquimaux, Nubians, etc. It should be added that this +result also needs confirmation, as it does not correspond with other +observations. Thus Holmgren found that colour-blindness existed in 5.60 +per cent. of 321 criminals, while among 32,000 of the ordinary population +the proportion was scarcely 3.25 per cent. Dyschromatopsia has been found +common, a fact of great significance, since this disorder is so frequently +connected with grave disturbance of the nervous system. + +The healthiness of eye in criminals, if confirmed, may be compared with a +similar condition in imbeciles. In a study of twenty young adult male +imbeciles of a minor degree than idiocy, Dr. Oliver found vision normal +and colour perception apparently normal, and the eyes singularly free from +the slight morbid changes so common in the eye. This condition, “which is +shown by a proper balance of muscular action, a persistence of congenital +hypermetropia, and an abnormally healthy appearance of the eye-ground +(presenting a picture that is almost identical to the one seen during +infantile existence), may be considered as significant of a type of +unused, healthy, adult human eye.”[46] + +The hearing of criminals is relatively obtuse, and they are prone to +disease of the ear. Thus Dr. Gradenigo, at the request of Lombroso, +undertook a series of researches into the matter,[47] in 110 instinctive +and occasional criminals. Of the 82 criminal men he examined, 55 (67.3 per +cent.) proved to be inferior to the normal. Of these 82, there were 40 who +were instinctive criminals, and of these 29 (72.5 per cent.) had defective +hearing. Of the 28 women, 15 (53.5 per cent.) possessed hearing inferior +to the normal. Four of the women, however, possessed hearing much superior +to the normal average.[48] Gradenigo found that the defective hearing was +due in the great majority of cases to inflammatory affections of the +middle and internal ear. He found no constant relation between defective +hearing and obtusity of touch, taste, and smell, frequently found among +criminals. + +Ottolenghi has examined the olfactory acuteness of 80 instinctive +criminals (50 men and 30 women) and 50 normal persons of the middle and +lower classes. He constructed a kind of osmometer consisting of twelve +acqueous solutions of essence of cloves, contained in similar bottles in +similar quantities. The solutions were graduated from 1/50000 to +1/100.[49] Beginning with the weakest solution he noted when olfactory +sensation commenced; and he also used the method of Nichols and Bailey, +inviting the subject to arrange the bottles in order of intensity. The +result, unlike what he had expected, was to show distinctly that the +olfactory sense is less developed in the criminal than in the normal +person, and slightly less in the criminal women than in the criminal men. +Among normal persons (as Nichols and Bailey had previously found) the +olfactory sense of women is less keen than that of men. Among the 80 +criminals, 8 (6 men and 2 women) possessed no olfactory sensibility; in 2 +of these there was entire absence of perception, in 6 absence of specific +sensation. + +Ottolenghi has also investigated the sense of taste in criminals.[50] He +examined 60 instinctive criminals, 20 occasional criminals, 20 normal +persons of the lower class, 50 students and professional men, 20 criminal +women and 20 normal women, all healthy and robust, and for the most part +between the ages of twenty and fifty. The three test substances used were +sulphate of strychnia, saccharine, and common salt; various precautions +(attention to uniformity of amount of solution used, temperature of +solution, cleanliness of mouth, etc.) were adopted in order to make a +series of experiments, full of practical difficulties, as reliable as +possible. From these experiments, it appeared that the sense of taste is +more developed in the normal man than in the criminal, and more developed +in the occasional criminal than in the instinctive criminal. He found +gustatory obtuseness in 38.3 per cent. of the instinctive criminals, in 25 +per cent. of the lower class men examined, and in 14 per cent. of the +professional men. The criminal women also showed a larger proportion of +gustatory obtuseness than the normal women. He noted, however, that the +women who passed as normal, but who were given to vice and prostitution, +showed an even larger percentage of gustatory obtuseness than criminal +women. The defect in gustatory acuteness seemed to him generally to be +rather of a qualitative than quantitative character. The generic +excitation was produced in a large number of cases as soon as in the +normal person, but the specific sensation was very retarded. The subject +was conscious of a taste, but could not tell of what kind it was; that is +to say, the defect was situated centrally, in the cerebral cortex, rather +than in the sensorial apparatus. + +It is worthy of note that criminals begin to use tobacco at an early age. +Thus among a population which normally begins to smoke before the age of +thirty only in the proportion of 14 per cent. (and the insane 7.2 per +cent.), 22 per cent. of criminals smoke before the age of thirty, and +nearly all (279 out of 300 males and 32 out of 32 women) before entering +prison. Venturi[51] found tobacco used by 14.3 per cent. of normal men, +1.5 of normal women; 45.8 of criminal men, 15.9 of criminal women. +Marambat[52] concluded that the love of tobacco was the first passion that +rooted itself in the youthful criminal. Out of 603 juvenile delinquents, +between the ages of eight and fifteen, 51 per cent. had acquired the +custom of using tobacco before their detention. + +Lombroso notes that the sensibility of criminals to the weather appears to +be greater than that of the ordinary population. He found it in 29 out of +112. There were 9 who became quarrelsome shortly before storms, and one +of these remarked that his companions always foretold bad weather when he +sought to quarrel. Dostoieffsky observed that quarrels and disturbances +were particularly common among the convicts in the spring. What is true of +the Russian prisoners in Siberia seems also to be true of American +prisoners at New York. From some tables given by Dr. Wey of Elmira it +appears that marks for bad conduct are specially numerous in the spring, +and also, to some extent, in the autumn. + +_Vaso-motor Sensibility._--Inability to blush has always been considered +the accompaniment of crime and shamelessness. Blushing is also very rare +among idiots and savages; the Spaniards used to say of the South American +Indians: “How can one trust men who do not know how to blush?” From the +investigations of Amadei, Tonnini, and Bergesio, it appears that if we +compare lunatics and criminals, twice as many of the latter are incapable +of blushing. Pasini, in his examinations of women, noted blushing in 21 +per cent. of murderers, 20 per cent. of poisoners, 18 per cent. of +infanticides, and only 10 per cent. of thieves. It was not at the mention +of their offences that they blushed, but when questioned concerning their +menstrual functions. Out of 130 criminal women examined by Salsotto, 50 +blushed when spoken to concerning their offences. Dr. Andronico of Messina +communicated to Lombroso some interesting, though too general, +observations concerning the prostitutes and young female criminals in +prison under his charge. “Among the inscribed prostitutes,” he remarks, +“none blushed when questioned concerning their occupation. I have seen +some of them blush when reproached for unnatural practices. I have noted +that female homicides narrate their deeds ingenuously and without +blushing; those who have poisoned their husbands blush, but partially. +Among female prisoners condemned for theft, blushing shows itself first on +the ears, then on the face; those who are condemned for excitation to +prostitution do not blush.” + +In order to test the vaso-motor reactions of the criminal to various +thoughts and emotions, Lombroso made a series of very interesting +experiments, during the course of a year, with the sphygmograph and with +Mosso’s ingenious and valuable instrument, the plethysmograph. With the +sphygmograph (or, rather, the hydrosphygmograph) he observed the degree of +excitement produced on various individuals by the sight of wine, cigars, +food, money, and photographs of nude women. The plethysmograph is a +delicate instrument for measuring mental excitement, depending on the fact +that the slightest emotion causes an alteration in the amount of blood +present in any part of the body.[53] With the plethysmograph Lombroso +found that the strongest impressions (superior to the normal) were +produced by cowardice, fear of the judge, some favourite mode of +excitement (wine or women), but above all, by vanity. It is not, however, +easy to generalise from his observations; it is necessary for such +observations to be carried on during a long period on a great number of +persons, normal as well as criminal, and to be carefully controlled. They +are of very great interest, for they enable us to penetrate into the most +secret recesses of the mind, and to measure the force of the motives that +move it. It is to be hoped that they will be conducted on a much larger +scale than they have hitherto been. + +All these researches into the physical sensibilities of the criminal are +of the first importance, and it is necessary that they should be greatly +extended and carefully checked. So far they nearly all converge to show +that the criminal is markedly deficient in physical sensibility. On this +physical insensibility rests that moral insensibility, or psychical +analgesia, as it has been called, which is, as we shall see, the +criminal’s most fundamental mental characteristic. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +CRIMINAL ANTHROPOLOGY (PSYCHICAL). + + +§ 1. _Moral Insensibility._ + +The moral insensibility of the instinctive and habitual criminal, his lack +of forethought, his absence of remorse, his cheerfulness, had been noted +long before they were exhaustively studied by Despine. In the _argot_ of +French criminals, conscience is _la muette_, and to induce any one to lead +a dishonest life is _l’affranchir_. This moral insensibility is, indeed, a +commonplace of observation with all who have come in close contact with +criminals. Gall remarked: “If criminals have remorse, it is that they have +not committed more crimes, or that they have let themselves be caught.” +Dostoieffsky, speaking from his intimate and sympathetic acquaintance with +convicts in Siberia, said: “During so many years I ought to have been able +to seize some indication, however fugitive, of regret, of moral suffering. +I have perceived positively nothing. Seclusion and excessive work only +develop among those people a profound hatred, the thirst of forbidden +pleasures, and a terrible indifference.” He goes on to tell of a parricide +who remarked carelessly, in the course of conversation: “Take my father, +for example; he was never ill up to the day of his death.” “Scenes of +heartrending despair are hardly ever witnessed among prisoners,” observes +Dr. Wey of Elmira; “their sleep is disturbed by no uneasy dreams, but is +easy and sound; their appetites, also, are excellent.”[54] “It is a most +singular thing,” remarks Mr. Davitt, “that I have met very few individuals +in prison who gave evidence in appearance or talk of being _truly_ +miserable, no matter what the length of their sentence, amount of extra +punishment, or contrast between their previous and their convict life may +have been.”[55] Mr. Davitt seems inclined to attribute this sinister +contentment to a sort of heroic fortitude providentially implanted in the +criminal breast. He refers, however, to one man who never smiled during +the time he was in Dartmoor. “His existence seemed to be one perpetual +sorrow, and he formed altogether the most striking exception to the rule +of non-despairing prisoners which came under my notice during my long +intercourse with Dartmoor’s criminal population.” Now this man was a +Swansea stone-mason who had come home one Saturday evening “a little +fresh,” but not drunk, to find his wife in tears, and on learning that she +had been insulted by a man who lived on the other side of the street, he +rushed out, chisel in hand, to the man’s house and left him desperately +wounded. It is clear that this man, who was sentenced to seven years’ +penal servitude, was not an instinctive criminal, or an habitual criminal +at all; it was the strength of his social, and not of his anti-social, +instincts which had caused his crime. He was merely a criminal by passion, +and his case forms, therefore, no exception to the general rule. + +On the whole we may conclude that the practice of the instinctive and +habitual criminal corresponds very closely with the faith of that +religious sect who in Commonwealth days held “that heaven and all +happiness consists in the acting of those things which are sin and +wickedness,” and “that such men and women are most perfect and like to God +or eternity which do commit the greatest sins with least remorse.” + +Despine, in his _Psychologie Naturelle_ (1868), studied this question on +the largest scale in order to obtain exact results. “I addressed myself +for this purpose,” he tells us, “to the collection of the _Gazette des +Tribunaux_, going back to 1825, and I soon acquired certainty that this +psychical peculiarity is an invariable rule among these criminals.... I +acquired the certainty that those who premeditate and commit crime in cold +blood never experience moral remorse. I found also that those who manifest +acute sorrow and real remorse after a criminal act, have committed that +act either under the influence of a violent passion which has momentarily +stifled the moral sense, or by accident, without intention.” He concludes +that the two great psychical conditions for crime are moral insensibility +and perversity, with two accessory moral anomalies, imprudence and lack of +foresight. + +“You premeditated your crime?” said the judge. “Yes, for eighteen months.” +“But that is monstrous.” “I know; I ought to have done it in April, but +having no money, I arranged it for January.” A murderer, after receiving +sentence, was led out in the midst of a crowd who hurled imprecations at +him. He saw a comrade and shouted to him, almost laughing--“Hallo! I’ve +just been condemned to death.” An Albanian, after having killed a +traveller to rob him, lamented that the expense of the shot amounted to +five paras; he had only found four paras on the victim; that was his one +regret. An assassin after his crime passed two days eating and drinking +with a comrade; “he was as gay as a lark,” said the latter. “But,” said +the judge to the accused, “one fact indicates remorse on your part: you +were about to cut your throat when arrested.” “That was that I might not +be taken to prison.” + +Wainewright unblushingly avowed his atrocities. How could he kill such an +innocent and trustful creature as Helen Abercrombie, he was asked once. +After a moment’s reflection he replied, “Upon my soul I don’t know, unless +it was because she had such thick legs.” + +It would be easy to give many similar stories exhibiting the moral +insensibility of the instinctive criminal, frequently manifested in brutal +bravado. They are, however, easily accessible and of sufficient notoriety. +It is enough to give one more. A corporal at Paris killed an old woman, +the landlady of an inn, in order to rob her. He was condemned to death +without any hope that his penalty would be commuted. He knew this, but was +not disturbed, and was proud of his calmness and _sangfroid_; he talked to +his warders on the most various subjects, without reference, however, to +his crime; read books from the prison library, and finally devoted himself +to what he called the literary labours of his last hours. He had a taste +for verse, and wrote a drama concerning his crime. “Death!” he often said +to those around him; “I cannot fear it either as a soldier or as a +philosopher. Yet it is overtaking me in my youth and strength. It is a +terrible thing, but I am prepared, and I shall go to my execution +courageously and with head erect.” The acts of this Socratic criminal +agreed with his words. He slept peacefully, rose and dressed himself with +a smile on his lips, glad, as he said, to find himself still in this +world, where it is, after all, so pleasant to live. His appetite was +always good, and he joked with the warder who attended him about the small +amount of food supplied to him. “Patience!” he exclaimed, “_à la guerre +comme à la guerre_.” + +An executioner told Lombroso that all the highwaymen and murderers went to +their deaths joking. It would, however, be a mistake to trace moral +insensibility in the tranquil avocations and _bon-mots_ of men who, +whatever their crimes, are about to pay the extreme forfeit for them. One +criminal occupied his last hours with arranging his unpublished literary +works; another gave lessons in hygiene to the warders; a third remarked to +those who sought to hurry him to the place of execution, “Do not be +disturbed; they will not begin without me.” Such stories have, however, +been recorded of the most eminent political offenders in all countries. + +[Illustration: PLATE IX.] + +Dr. Corre, in his interesting work, _Les Criminels_, has investigated the +historic and judicial documents relative to the last moments of 88 +criminals condemned to death, of whom 64 were men and 24 women. Of the men +25 died in a cowardly manner, already half-dead with fear, or else after a +despairing struggle with the executioner. These were more than two-fifths +of the whole number, and included many of the chief criminal celebrities, +some of them educated men, doctors and priests. Four accepted their fate +in a state of extreme nervous excitement, accompanied by loquacity. Twelve +maintained to the end a cynical and theatrical attitude; these were +vain individuals, often with some pretensions to literary ability; +Lacenaire is the type of them. Five died with indifference, an impassivity +which recalls the insensibility of the brute or the unconsciousness of the +madman. Eighteen went out of the world with a calm and resigned courage, +often repentant, and prepared by the exhortations of the priest. They +belonged to various social classes. Those of the lower classes were +generally more sincere, and publicly avowed their guilt, holding +themselves up as warnings to others; those belonging to the middle +classes, anxious to leave behind a doubt as to their guilt, declared +themselves innocent; others were silent. Of the 24 women, only 5 (about +one-fifth) showed cowardice. Only one, a poisoner, showed “revolting +cynicism.” The rest, 18 in number, were self-possessed and resigned, +frequently repentant, and generally consoled by religious administrations. +In this category is included the Marquise de Brinvilliers, who for a long +quarter of an hour was exposed to an immense crowd nearly naked--“mirodée, +rasée, dressée et redressée par le bourreau,” wrote Mme. de Sevigné--with +unshaken firmness. Three-fourths of the women, little more than one-fourth +of the men, are among those who died with resigned self-possession. The +cynicism, cowardice, and brutal passivity of the others alike testify to +moral insensibility. + +Out of more than 400 murderers Bruce Thomson had known, only three +expressed remorse. Of the 4000 criminals who have passed through Elmira, +36.2 per cent. showed on admission positively no susceptibility to moral +impressions; only 23.4 per cent. were “ordinarily susceptible.” Dr. +Salsotto, in his recent study of 130 women condemned for premeditated +assassination or complicity in such assassination,[56] was only able to +recognise genuine penitence in six. He is careful to point out that +precise statistics on this point are of no great value, unless they are +associated with a very intimate knowledge of individual criminals; the +assumed penitence is seldom real, and the real penitence is not obtrusive. +Dostoieffsky, the most profound student of the human heart who has ever +studied criminals intimately, has noted this fact--“In one prison there +were men whom I had known for several years, whom I believed to be savage +beasts, and for whom, as such, I felt contempt; yet at the most unexpected +moment their souls would involuntarily expand at the surface with such a +wealth of sentiment and cordiality, with such a vivid sense of their own +and others’ suffering, that scales seemed to fall from one’s eyes; for an +instant the stupefaction was so great that one hesitated to believe what +one had seen and heard.” + +The moral insensibility of the instinctive criminal is the cause of his +cruelty, a cruelty which he frequently displays from his childhood. Rossi +found in ten of his 100 criminals an exaggerated and precocious cruelty; +one of them, as a child, used to take young birds, pull out their +feathers, and roast them alive; another revenged himself on birds for the +punishments imposed on him by his parents. A certain amount of cruelty is, +however, almost normal in healthy children. The instinctive criminal is +more distinctively marked by his continuance of the same practices +throughout life. At Buenos Ayres a man killed his father in order to rob +him, and not finding the money, he placed his mother’s feet on the fire to +make her confess that of which she was ignorant. Another, after killing an +entire family, played with the corpses of the children by throwing them in +the air and catching them alternately. Another, mentioned by Lombroso, +when shown a photograph of his wife whom he had murdered, testified to the +identity without the tremor of an eyelid, tranquilly adding that after +inflicting the fatal wound he had asked for forgiveness, which had not +been granted. A little nursemaid poisoned the twin children under her care +with the phosphorus from a box of matches, in order to procure the +excitement of going out to the doctor’s and the chemist’s.[57] + +In India no motive for murder seems too unnatural or too far-fetched to be +occasionally true. “A village schoolmaster in Aligarh (1881) killed one of +his pupils; and a stepfather in the same district threw his two stepsons +into the Ganges because he was tired of them. A man in Jhansi (1885) +killed his daughter because his neighbour had slandered her, in order that +the girl’s blood might be upon the neighbour’s head. A master murdered his +servant (1881) and threw the body before his enemy’s door, solely in order +to bring a false charge against the latter. A similar case occurred in +Azamgarh five years later: a boy was murdered by his grandfather and +uncle; they threw the body into a sugar-cane field, and then charged the +owner with the crime. A still stranger story comes from the Mutha +District: Randbir, a Jat, who had once been a thriving man in Randbirpur, +fell into the hands of the moneylenders, lost his property and his house, +and became for some crooked reason embittered against his old +fellow-villagers. He made up his mind to bring them into trouble. Taking +his chopper with him, he met a little Chamar girl, whom he took into a +temple in Bahadurpur. There he cut her throat and slightly wounded +himself, and then brought a charge of dacoity and murder against the +people of his old village.”[58] + +Such moral insensibility is, no doubt, intimately related to the physical +insensibility already noted, and is of an equally morbid or atypical +character. It passes far beyond that of the savage with which the moral +insensibility involved in deliberately killing or injuring a +fellow-creature may fairly be compared. “How you snore!” said one person +to another. “Do it again, and I kill you.” An hour afterwards he killed +him. Lord Gifford mentions an Australian woman of the Muliana tribe who +admitted having killed and eaten two of her own children, who annoyed her +by crying. (The Australian aborigines are, however, usually very tender to +their children.) A Maori chief said to Mr. Tregear--“If I go out for a +morning walk with my spear, and I see a man, and I push my spear through +him, _that_ isn’t murder--that is ‘_killing_.’ But if I invite him to my +home, give him food, tell him to sleep, and then kill him, _that_ is +‘_murder_.’”[59] Such a clear-cut distinction as this testifies to a +considerable degree of moral insensibility. It must be noted, however, +that while in this respect the criminal approximates to the savage, he is +at the same time related to those more or less civilised persons who +tolerate killing with equanimity when it is called war. + + +§ 2. _Intelligence._ + +The two most characteristic features in the intelligence of the average +criminal are at first sight inconsistent. On the one hand he is stupid, +inexact, lacking in forethought, astoundingly imprudent. On the other hand +he is cunning, hypocritical, delighting in falsehood, even for its own +sake, abounding in ruses. These characteristics are fully illustrated in +the numerous anecdotal books which have been written concerning crime and +criminals. + +Several attempts have been made to attain accurate figures as to the +relative intelligence of criminals, but there must be a considerable +element of guess-work in such calculations. Dr. Marro, a reliable +observer, detected a notable defect of intelligence in 21 cases out of +500. He found that incendiaries and then murderers yielded the largest +proportion of individuals with defective intelligence; then came +vagabonds, sexual offenders, those convicted of assault, highwaymen, and +those convicted of simple theft. The fraudulent class, as well as +pickpockets and burglars, showed no instances of defective intelligence. +That is to say that criminals against the person show a much lower level +of intelligence than criminals against property. + +The stupidity and the cunning of the criminal are in reality closely +related, and they approximate him to savages and to the lower animals. +Like the savage, the criminal is lacking in curiosity, the foundation of +science, and one of the very highest acquisitions of the highly-developed +man. He is constantly compared in this respect to animals. Macé, a former +chief of the Parisian _police de sûreté_, remarks: “In spite of the +cunning and tricks, which are too gratuitously credited to thieves, their +stupidity generally is scarcely credible; they nearly all resemble the +ostrich who, when his head is hidden behind a leaf, thinks that he is not +seen because he cannot see.” Dr. Corre remarks: “There is something feline +in the criminal: like the cat, indolent and capricious, yet ardent in the +pursuit of an aim, the anti-social being knows only how to satisfy his +impulsive instincts.” Dr. Wey of Elmira says: “It is a mistake to suppose +that the criminal is naturally bright. If bright, it is usually in a +narrow line and self-repeating. Like the cunning of the fox, his smartness +displays itself in furthering his schemes, and personal gratification and +comfort.” “Many criminal illiterates,” he remarks elsewhere, “are so +densely stupid as to be unable to tell the right hand from the left.” M. +Joly, discussing the criminal’s delight in ruse, adds: “Animals are of all +living things fondest of ruse when their special instincts are in action. +Idle and untrained children, resolved to deceive their teachers and to +amuse themselves at all risks, are more _rusé_ than their comrades at the +head of the class. Women make use of ruse much more than men.” I will +quote, finally, on this point some words of Dr. A. Krauss[60]:--“The +specialists say that criminals are more astute than intelligent. But what +is this astuteness? It is an instinctive, innate faculty, which does not +depend on real intelligence, and which is already found precociously +perfected in children, in the lowest savages, in women, and also in +imbeciles; although experience comes to its aid, it is never capable of +artificial culture. It is essentially a faculty limited to the +consideration of concrete cases, and which is chiefly concerned with the +deception of others. The mental inertia so often combined with this +faculty is recognised in this, that a criminal, in planning a crime, does +not calculate all the possible eventualities, and immediately after the +success of his action he loses all caution, as if the energy of his mind +directed to the project and its execution was exhausted at one stroke. +Beside this instinctive faculty, intelligence is a faculty of infinite +variety, which matures slowly, and gradually affects language and +questions of abstract culture. It needs to be cultivated with diligence, +and with the help of a happy organisation of the nervous centres. It often +develops late even in highly-gifted men.” + +At the same time men of undoubted intellectual power are sometimes found +among criminals. Villon, one of the truest, if not one of the greatest of +poets, was a criminal, a man perpetually in danger of the gallows; it does +not seem to me, however, by any means clear that he was what we should +call an instinctive criminal. Vidocq, a clever criminal who became an +equally successful police official, and wrote his interesting and +instructive _Memoirs_, may not have been, as Lombroso claims, a man of +genius, but he was certainly a man of great ability. Eugene Aram is now +generally recognised as a comparative philologist who foresaw and to some +extent inaugurated some of the later advances of that science. + +[Illustration: PLATE X.] + +Jonathan Wild is an interesting example of a criminal of great practical +ability, a man whose genius for organisation would have made him equal to +any position in which he might have been placed. “In the republic of the +thieves’ guild”--I quote Mr. Pike’s excellent summary of his +career[61]--“Jonathan Wild became as it were a dictator; but like many of +the great men of the middle ages, he owed his greatness to double dealing. +From small beginnings he became, in London at least, the receiver-in-chief +of all stolen goods. He acquired and maintained this position by the +persistent application of two simple principles: he did his best to aid +the law in convicting all those misdoers who would not recognise his +authority, and he did his best to repair the losses of all those who had +been plundered and who took him into their confidence. By degrees he set +up an office for the recovery of missing property, at which the government +must, for a time, have connived. Here the robbed sought an audience of the +only man who could promise them restitution; here the robbers congregated +like workmen at a workshop, to receive the pay for the work they had done. +Wild was, in some respects, more autocratic than many kings, for he had +the power of life and death. If he could reward the thief who submitted to +him, he could hang the robber who omitted to seek his protection. If he +could, for a sufficient fee, discover what had been lost, he could, when +his claims were forgotten, make the losers repent their want of worldly +wisdom. He was not above his position, and never allowed such a sentiment +as generosity to interfere with the plain rules of business. He carried +a wand of office, made of silver, which he asserted to be an indication of +authority given to him by the government. Valuable goods he carefully +stowed away in some of his numerous warehouses; and when there was no +market for them in England, through the apathy of the persons robbed, or +the dangers to dishonest purchasers, he despatched them on board a ship of +his own to Holland, where he employed a trustworthy agent. Like barbarian +monarchs, he gave presents when he wished to express a desire for +friendship and assistance; and in order that the recipients of these +favours might not be compromised, he retained a staff of skilled artizans, +who could so change the appearance of a snuff-box, a ring, or a watch, +that not even the real owner could recognise it. When satisfied with the +good service of any of his subordinates who might be in danger, he gave +them posts in his own household, with money and clothing, and found +employment for them in clipping and counterfeiting coin. He did not even +restrict his operations to London, but, in imitation of other great +conquerors and pillagers, or perhaps through the independent working of +his own intellect, he divided England into districts, and assigned a gang +to each; each had to account to him, as the counties of old to the king, +for the revenue collected. And as a well-appointed army has its artillery, +its cavalry, and its infantry, so among Jonathan Wild’s retainers there +was a special corps for robbing in church, another for various festivities +in London, and a third with a peculiar aptitude for making the most of a +country fair. The body-guards of a sovereign are usually chosen for their +appearance, or for tried valour in the field. Wild’s principle of +selection was somewhat different. He considered that fidelity to himself +was the first virtue in a follower, and that fidelity was certain only +when there was absolute inability to be unfaithful. For this reason the +greatest recommendation which any recruit could possess was that he had +been a convict, had been transported, and had returned before the time of +his sentence had expired. Such a man as this not only had experience in +his profession, but was legally incapable of giving evidence against his +employer. Through his actions he was always in the power of Wild, who, as +the law stood, could never be in his power. Thus Wild’s authority was in +two ways supreme. Nor was he the first man who ever abused such authority. +He did what political parties had done in earlier times. He used without +stint or scruple all the means at his disposal, either to ensure his own +safety, or to crush any one whom he suspected. It was necessary, according +to the public opinion of his time, that a considerable number of thieves +and robbers should be hanged; he satisfied at once the popular notions of +justice and his own principles by bringing to the gallows all who +concealed their booty, or refused to share it with himself. When required, +he provided also a few additional victims in the form of persons who had +committed no offence whatever. Sometimes he destroyed them because they +were unfortunately in possession of evidence against himself, sometimes +only because a heavy reward had been offered for the conviction of any one +who might have perpetrated a great crime, and because, with the gang at +his back, it was quite as easy to prove the case against the innocent as +against the guilty, and not less convenient.” Wild’s greatness had a +sudden fall. He was arrested for coming to the rescue of a highwayman near +Bow, and his enemies at once took courage. He was speedily overwhelmed +with evidence, and was hanged in 1725. + + +§ 3. _Vanity._ + +The vanity of criminals is at once an intellectual and an emotional fact. +It witnesses at once to their false estimate of life and of themselves, +and to their egotistic delight in admiration. They share this character +with a large proportion of artist and literary men, though, as Lombroso +remarks, they decidedly excel them in this respect. The vanity of the +artist and literary man marks the abnormal element, the tendency in them +to degeneration. It reveals in them the weak points of a mental +organisation, which at other points is highly developed. Vanity may exist +in the well-developed ordinary man, but it is unobtrusive; in its extreme +forms it marks the abnormal man, the man of unbalanced mental +organisation, artist or criminal. + +George Borrow, who was so keen a student of men, has some remarks on the +vanity of criminals in regard to dress:--“There is not a set of people in +the world more vain than robbers in general, more fond of cutting a figure +whenever they have an opportunity, and of attracting the eyes of their +fellow-creatures by the gallantry of their appearance. The famous Sheppard +of olden times delighted in sporting a suit of Genoese velvet, and when he +appeared in public generally wore a silver-hilted sword at his side; +whilst Vaux and Hayward, heroes of a later day, were the best-dressed men +on the _pavē_ of London. Many of the Italian bandits go splendidly +decorated, and the very gipsy robber has a feeling for the charms of +dress; the cap alone of the Haram Pasha, a leader of the cannibal gipsy +band which infested Hungary towards the conclusion of the last century, +was adorned with gold and jewels to the value of four thousand guilders. +Observe, ye vain and frivolous, how vanity and crime harmonise. The +Spanish robbers are as fond of this species of display as their brethren +of other lands, and, whether in prison or out of it, are never so happy as +when, decked out in a profusion of white linen, they can loll in the sun, +or walk jauntily up and down.” He then describes the principal features of +Spanish robber foppery.[62] + +More significant and even more widely spread is the moral vanity of +criminals. “In ordinary society,” said Vidocq, “infamy is dreaded; among a +body of prisoners the only shame is not to be infamous; to be an _escarpe_ +(assassin) is the highest praise.” This is universally true among every +group of murderers or of thieves; the author of a large criminal +transaction is regarded by all his fellows as a hero, and he looks down +upon the others with contempt; the man who has had the misfortune to be +imprisoned for a small or, in the opinion of criminal society, +disreputable offence, represents himself as the author of some crime of +magnitude. + +A Russian youth of nineteen killed an entire family. When he heard that +all St. Petersburg was talking of him, he said: “Now, my schoolfellows +will see how unfair it was of them to say that I should never be heard +of.” It is this same weak-minded desire to excite interest and sympathy +which leads young men and women of ill-balanced mental organisation to +commit suicide in some public and startling fashion. The same feeling, and +also, doubtless, the need for expression, leads to the frequency with +which criminals keep diaries. The Marquise de Brinvilliers wrote a minute +account of her vices and crimes which was brought up in evidence against +her; Wainewright appears to have kept a diary of this kind which also fell +into other hands; John Wilkes Booth, the shallow-brained young actor who +killed President Lincoln, had, with his stagy patriotism, some of the +characteristics of the instinctive criminals, showing themselves +especially in his morbid vanity. The chief suffering he felt after the +deed was to his vanity. He wrote in his diary: “I struck boldly, and not +as the papers say; I walked with a firm step through thousands of his +friends; was stopped, but pushed on. A colonel was at his side. I shouted +_Sic Semper_ before I fired. In jumping broke my leg. I passed all the +pickets. Rode sixty miles that night, with the bone of my leg tearing the +flesh at every jump.” And again he writes: “After being hunted like a dog +through swamps, woods, and last night chased by gun-boats till I was +forced to return, wet, cold, and starving, with every man’s hand against +me, I am here in despair. And why? For doing what Brutus was honoured +for--what made Tell a hero.” And again: “I am abandoned, with the curse of +Cain upon me, when, if the world knew my heart, that one blow would have +made me great.” + +The excessive vanity of the criminal sometimes leads him to commit the +imprudence of talking about his plans beforehand, and so courting +detection. Before killing three rich men, a murderer was heard to say, “I +want to do something great: oh, I shall be talked about!” We hear of +Wainewright’s “insatiable and morbid self-esteem.” He enjoyed the respect +paid to him in prison, and insisted upon being treated as a gentleman. A +prisoner concluded a letter to her accomplice, “Your Lucrezia Borgia.” +Sometimes the vanity of the criminal shows itself in the artistic or +dramatic representations which he makes of his crime. Perhaps the most +curious and audacious attempt is that recorded by Lombroso, who gives a +representation of it: three assassins had themselves photographed as they +appeared with knives in their hands and looks of resolute villainy, when +about to commit the deed. + +The Abbé Moreau has described the reception of a great criminal by his +fellows at the prison of La Grande Roquette. He is immediately surrounded, +though the curiosity remains respectful; “he is a king in the midst of his +subjects; envious looks are cast at those privileged individuals who have +succeeded in placing themselves near him; they listen eagerly for his +slightest word; they do not speak their admiration for fear of +interrupting him, and he knows that he dominates and fascinates them.” + + +§ 4. _Emotional Instability._ + +The criminal everywhere is incapable of prolonged and sustained exertion; +an amount of regular work which would utterly exhaust the most vigorous +and rebellious would be easily accomplished by an ordinary workman. He is +essentially idle; the whole art of crime lies in the endeavour to avoid +the necessity of labour. This constitutional laziness is therefore one of +the chief organic bases of crime. Make idleness impossible and you have +done much to make the criminal impossible. It is not without reason that +French criminals call themselves _pègres_ (from _pigritia_), the idle. +Lemaire, a notorious French criminal of the beginning of the century, was +speaking for all his class when he said to his judges: “I have always been +lazy; it is a shame, I admit, but I am not adapted for work; to work one +needs an effort, and I am incapable of it; I only have energy for evil; if +one must work I do not care about life; I would rather be condemned to +death.” + +While he is essentially lazy, and exhibits this even in his general +neglect of personal cleanliness (though sometimes dressed outwardly as an +ordinary man of the world), the criminal is capable of moments of violent +activity. He cannot, indeed, live without them; they are the chief events +of his spiritual life. + +Louis Desprez, an unfortunate _littérateur_, imprisoned at Saint-Pélagie +for a literary offence, “summed up the psychology of criminals,” remarks +M. Émile Gautier, “in one picturesque formula: They see the world under +the aspect of an immense gaol alternating with an immense brothel. And +this is true. For them imprisonment is the normal condition. Liberty is +their holiday, an occasional transitory holiday, during which they wallow +in the _far niente_ and debauch, like sailors who consume in three days +the earnings of eighteen months, but a holiday which will have an end, a +foreseen and expected end.” + +The criminal craves for some powerful stimulus, excitement, uproar, to +lift him out of his habitual inertia. That is why the love of alcohol is +in all countries so strong among criminals. The man who is organised as we +have seen the criminal to be must have some powerful stimulant to take him +out of himself, to give him a joy which is otherwise beyond his grasp, and +alcohol is the stimulant which comes easiest to hand. When, as frequently +happens, he is the child of alcoholic parents, the craving for drink soon +obtains morbid intensity. Crime and drink are intimately bound together, +although we must beware of too unreservedly setting down drink as the +cause of crime. Both crime and drink are the morbid manifestations of +organic defects which for the most part precede birth. The abuse of +alcohol is not, however, universal among criminals, at all events when any +intellectual ability is required. “It would not do to drink in our +business,” said a sharper to Lombroso. + +The criminal finds another strong form of excitement in gambling. The love +of cards is even more widely spread among criminals than the love of +drink. It frequently becomes a passion. Lauvergne tells of a band of +criminals who played for two days without intermission. We hear of a +French prisoner who gambled away his meagre rations of bread and wine and +at last died of starvation; of another who in the excitement of the game +forgot his approaching execution. + +To all forms of sexual excitement, natural and unnatural, criminals of +both sexes resort, often from a very early age. The prison, in which the +criminal is confined alone, or with persons of the same sex, serves to +develop perverted sexual habits to a high degree. Prince Krapotkine, +speaking of the moral influence of prisons on prisoners in France, +writes:--“The facts which we came across during our prison life surpass +all that the most frenzied imagination could invent. One must have been +for long years in a prison, secluded from all higher influences and +abandoned to one’s own and that of a thousand convicts’ imaginations, to +come to the incredible state of mind which is witnessed among some +prisoners. And I suppose that I shall say only what will be supported by +all intelligent and frank governors of prisons, if I say that the prisons +are _the_ nurseries for the most revolting category of breaches of moral +law.”[63] There is unquestionable evidence that the same practices exist, +notwithstanding all discipline, in English prisons. + +Such practices grow up chiefly as a means of excitement and diversion in +vacuous lives. Love, in its highest and strongest forms, seems to be +extremely rare. This is true even when love is the cause of the crime. The +love, even when strong, remains rather brutal. When a man was asked if he +really loved the woman for whose sake he had murdered her husband, he +replied: “Oh, if you had seen her naked!” + +The craving for excitement, for intoxication, for uproar, finds its chief +satisfaction in the love of orgy, which is now almost confined, at all +events in its extreme forms, to the criminal and his intimate ally, the +prostitute. The orgy is the criminal’s most sacred festival; here he +attains his highest experiences of forgetful exhilaration. Vidocq, still +a criminal at heart, even after he had become a police official, has +described the orgy in his _Memoirs_:--“Imagine a rather large square hall, +with walls, once white, now blackened by exhalations of every kind: such +is, in all its simplicity, the aspect of a temple of Bacchus and +Terpsichore. At first by a very natural optical illusion, one is only +struck by the smallness of the place, but when the eye succeeds in +piercing the atmosphere, thick with a thousand vapours which are not +inodorous, the size becomes manifest by the details which escape from the +chaos. This is the moment of creation; everything clears up; the mist +dissipates, becomes peopled and animated; there is movement, agitation, +not of empty shadows but of substantial forms which cross and interlace in +every direction. What beatitude! What a joyous life! Never for epicureans +were so many felicities gathered together as here for those who love to +wallow in mire. Around, rows of tables, on which, without their ever being +cleaned, disgusting libations are renewed a hundred times a day, serve to +frame in a space which is reserved for what are called the dancers. At the +end of this infectious den rises, supported by four worm-eaten pillars, a +kind of platform, its construction hidden by two or three fragments of old +tapestry. On this hencoop the musicians are perched, two clarinettes, a +fiddle, a loud trombone, and a deafening drum.... In this receptacle one +finds none but prostitutes and their bullies, sharpers of all kinds, +swindlers of the lowest sort, and a good many of those disturbers of the +night whose lives are divided into two parts, one consecrated to rowdyism, +the other to robbery.” + +More interesting than this resort to external sources of stimulus, and +more significant of emotional instability, are the spontaneous outbursts +of excitement common among criminals, curious self-evolved intoxications +springing from mysterious and incalculable depths of the organism. +Dostoieffsky has studied these outbursts and admirably described them. “A +prisoner has lived tranquilly,” he tells us,[64] “for several consecutive +years, and his conduct has been exemplary. All at once, to the great +astonishment of his guardians, he mutinies and recoils before no crime, +even murder or rape. Every one is astonished. This unexpected explosion is +the anguished, convulsive manifestation of personality, an instinctive +melancholy, a desire to affirm the degraded _ego_, an emotion which +obscures the judgment. It is like a spasm, an access of epilepsy; the man +who is buried alive and who suddenly awakes strikes in despair against his +coffin-lid; he strives to push it back, to raise it; his reason convinces +him of the uselessness of all his efforts, but reason has nothing to do +with his convulsions. It must not be forgotten that nearly every +manifestation of the personality of the prisoner is considered a crime; +also that the question whether the manifestation is important or +insignificant is perfectly indifferent to the prisoner. Risk for risk, it +is better to go to the extreme, even to murder. It is only the first step +that costs; little by little the man is carried away and can no longer be +held in.” The prison has much to answer for in the development of these +emotional outbreaks, and it is only in prison that there is opportunity of +studying them. It would, however, be rash to conclude that they are +entirely due to prison conditions. They are in harmony with all that we +know of criminal psychology, and it is not alone under prison conditions +that they are the causes of crime. + +In Germany these periodic explosions (known as _Zuchthaus-Knall_) have +been described by Delbrück and Krafft-Ebing. In Italy they have been noted +by Lombroso, especially in very hot weather and at such times as epileptic +attacks are most frequent, and he regards them as fresh proof of a close +relationship between the instinctive criminal and the epileptic. In +England they appear to be rare in men, but, on the other hand, common in +women who have, in prison language, “broken out.” This wild fit of +maniacal violence which from time to time seizes on the women confined in +prisons, and might almost be regarded as an exaggerated or vicarious form +of orgy, has been studied with some care in England. Here as well as +abroad it is frequently supposed to be a voluntary insubordination +deserving punishment. + +A lady superintendent thus described the “breaking out” to +Mayhew:--“Sometimes they know when the fit is coming on, and will +themselves ask to be locked up in the refractory wards. When they’re in +these fits they’re terribly violent indeed; they tear up and break +everything they can lay their hands on. The younger they are the worse +they behave. The most violent age, I think, is from seventeen to two or +three and twenty;--indeed they are like fiends at that age very often.” +The medical officer told him that “4 per cent. of the whole of the +prisoners, or 20 in 600, were subject to such fits of violent passion, and +these were almost invariably from fifteen to twenty-five years of age.” +“Women,” he added, “seldom injure themselves or those around them, though +they will break their windows, and even occasionally tear their own +clothing to ribbons.”[65] + +Miss Mary Carpenter, in her _Female Life in Prison_, reproduces what she +tells us is a characteristic dialogue:-- + +“‘Miss G., I’m going to break out to-night.’ + +“‘Oh, nonsense; you won’t think of any such folly, I’m sure.’ + +“‘I’m sure I shall.’ + +“‘What for?’ + +“‘Well, I’ve made up my mind, that’s what for. I shall break out +to-night--see if I don’t.’ + +“‘Has any one offended you or said anything?’ + +“‘N-no. But I _must_ break out. It’s so dull here. I’m sure to break out.’ + +“‘And then you’ll go to the “dark” [cell].’ + +“‘I want to go to the “dark.”’ + +“And the breaking out often occurs as promised; the glass shatters out of +the window frames; strips of sheets and blankets are passed through or +left in a heap in the cell; the guards are sent for, and there is a +scuffling and fighting and scratching and screaming that Pandemonium might +equal, nothing else.” + +Dr. Nicolson has made an interesting observation as to the periods when +these “breakings-out” are most liable to occur. “At dates corresponding +with the menstrual period there is a greater likelihood of their +occurrence. Besides having verified this in several cases myself, I have +the testimony of experienced prison matrons to the same effect.” These +maniacal outbursts of hysteria may be compared to the somewhat similar +effects observed especially at the menstrual periods among the epileptic, +the insane, and the imbecile. Thus Dr. H. Sutherland (_West Riding Asylum +Reports_, vol. ii.), from observations on 500 inmates of the West Riding +Asylum, remarks that in epileptic insanity the fits are generally +increased in number, and the patients generally become excited at the +catamenial period; while the mania exacerbations usually occur at this +time. He notes the frequency of excitement, violence, indecent language, +tearing up clothes, etc., among insane women generally at this period. In +a girl with congenital imbecility, who became violent, cruel, and +capricious at puberty, Dr. Langdon Down noted that the monthly period was +always marked by insubordination, violent language, rude gestures, and +untruthfulness. In ordinary healthy young girls the onset of the monthly +period is often marked by a fit of unusual boisterousness. + +The period of the year seems also to have some influence on the emotional +instability. Miss Carpenter remarks that “the prisoners are always the +most ill-behaved at Christmas time,” perhaps because this period has, even +before the days of Christianity, been associated with excesses. Among the +men at Elmira, judging from the charts given by Dr. Wey, there is a +tendency to insubordination in the autumn, and also in the spring. In +Spanish prisons, it appears from Salillas’s _Vida Penal en España_, +quarrels and arrests are much more common in spring and summer than at any +other season. Thus, to take one record: March-May, 8; June-Aug., 9; +Sept.-Nov., 4; Dec.-Feb., 3. Two suicides both occurred in September. + +Very interesting is the instinctive and irresistible character of +criminal impulses, as shown by evidence which there is no good reason to +impeach. Casanova, speaking of his clever schemes of fraud, says: “When I +put into execution a spontaneous idea which I had not premeditated, it +seemed to me that I was following the laws of destiny, and yielding to a +supreme will.” Several pickpockets have said to Lombroso: “You see, in +those moments of inspiration (_sic_) we cannot restrain ourselves, we have +to steal.” “I did try very hard, Miss,” the women will sometimes say to +the matron, remarks Miss Carpenter, “but it wasn’t to be. I was obliged to +steal, or to watch some one there was a chance of stealing from. I did try +my best, but it couldn’t be helped, and here I am. It wasn’t my fault +exactly, because I _did_ try.” A pickpocket said to Marro: “When I see any +one pass with a watch in his pocket, even though I have no need of money, +I feel a real need to take it.” Dostoieffsky, giving a minute account of +one of the convicts who was most feared, but who was sincerely devoted to +him, says: “He sometimes stole from me, but it was always _involuntary_; +he scarcely ever borrowed from me, so that what attracted him was not +money or other interested motive.” Once it was a Bible which he sold to +obtain drink. “Probably he felt a strong desire for drink that day, and +when he felt a strong desire for anything it had to be satisfied. I +endeavoured to reproach him as he deserved, for I regretted my Bible. He +listened to me without irritation, very peacefully; he agreed with me that +the Bible is a very useful book, and he sincerely regretted that I no +longer possessed it, but he felt no repentance, not even for an instant, +for having stolen it; he looked at me with such assurance that I +immediately ceased to scold him. He bore my reproaches because he judged +that it could not be otherwise, that he deserved to be blamed for such an +action, and that I ought to abuse him, in order to relieve myself, as a +consolation for the loss; but privately he esteemed it a folly, a folly +which a serious man would have been ashamed to speak of. I even think he +regarded me as a child, an urchin who does not understand the simplest +things in the world.” + +Precisely the same instinctive and involuntary impulses, unaccompanied by +shame, are found among various lower races. Of the natives of British New +Guinea, for instance, it has been said, “They are inveterate thieves, but +they experience no sense of shame when they are discovered. They +frequently say that they can feel an irresistible power which compels them +to put out their hand and close it upon some article which they covet, but +which does not belong to them.”[66] + + +§ 5. _Sentiment._ + +It may seem a curious contradiction of what has already been set down +concerning the criminal’s moral insensibility, his cruelty, and his +incapacity to experience remorse, when it is added that he is frequently +open to sentiment. It is, however, true. Whatever refinement or tenderness +of feeling criminals attain to reveals itself as what we should call +sentiment or sentimentality. Their cynicism allies itself with sentiment +in their literary productions. Their unnatural loves are often +sentimental, as revealed in the character of the tattoo marks. Two +interesting examples of criminal sentiment have recently been recorded by +Dr. Lindau. A German criminal (it is perhaps as well to note that he was a +German), having murdered his sweetheart most cruelly, went back to her +house to let out a canary which might suffer from want of food. Another, +after having killed a woman, stayed behind to feed her child which was +crying. Lacenaire, on the same day that he committed a murder, risked his +own life to save that of a cat. Eugene Aram was very indulgent to animals. +Wainewright was always very fond of cats; in his last days “his sole +companion was a cat for which he evinced an extraordinary affection.” One +of the chief characters of Wainewright’s essays is their sentimentality. +Himself, when in prison, he described as the possessor of “a soul whose +nutriment is love, and its offspring art, music, divine song, and still +holier philosophy.” + +[Illustration: PLATE XI.] + +All prisoners make pets of birds, or animals, or flowers, if they get the +chance. This is simply the result of solitude, and has no connection +whatever with criminal psychology. It is found, if anything, more +frequently among non-criminal prisoners. No one has described better than +Dostoieffsky, in his _Recollections of the Dead-House_, the part that +animals play in the lives of prisoners. He describes at length the goat, +the horse, the dogs, the ducks, the eagle. No one who has once read it may +forget the history of the eagle. The eagle would not be tamed; solitary +and inconsolable he refused all food; at last his mournful despair aroused +the sympathy of the convicts; they resolved to liberate him, bore him to +the ramparts on the cold and grey autumn afternoon, and stood long and +wistfully watching him as he winged his way across the steppes, free. + +Family affection is by no means rare among criminals. Often indeed, as is +well known, it constitutes the motive for the crime. It is very rare to +find a prisoner who is not touched by an allusion to his mother. Inspector +Byrnes, of New York, says: “Remember that nearly all the great criminals +of the country are men who lead double lives. Strange as it may appear, it +is the fact that some of the most unscrupulous rascals who ever cracked a +safe, or turned out a counterfeit, were at home model husbands and +fathers. In a great many cases wives have aided their guilty partners in +their villainy, and the children too have taken a hand in it. But in as +many all suggestions of the criminal’s calling was left outside the front +door. There was George Engles, the forger. His family lived quietly and +respectably, mingled with the best of people, and were liked by all they +met. George Leonidas Leslie, _alias_ Howard, who was found dead near +Yonkers, probably made away with by his pals, was a fine-looking man, with +cultured tastes and refined manners. Billy Porter and Johnny Irving were +not so spruce, but they would pass for artisans; and Irving is said, in +all his villainy, to have well provided for his old mother and his +sisters. Johnny the Greek paid for his little girls’ tuition at a convent +in Canada, and had them brought up as ladies, without even a suspicion of +their father’s business reaching them. I know this same thing to be done +by some of the hardest cases we have to contend with.” + +Inspector Byrnes also mentions a celebrated burglar and forger of +America, called by the fraternity “the Prince of Thieves,” on account of +his great liberality; “it is a well-known fact that he has always +contributed to the support of the wives and families of his associates +when they were in trouble.” + +The criminal appreciates sympathy. Dostoieffsky tells how immediately the +convicts responded to a governor who was affable and good-natured, and +treated the prisoners as equals: “They did not love him, they adored +him.... I do not remember that they ever permitted themselves to be +disrespectful or familiar. On the contrary. When he met the governor the +convict’s face suddenly lighted up; he smiled largely, cap in hand, even +to see him approach.” Prince Krapotkine quotes and confirms the +observations of Dr. Campbell, an experienced prison surgeon. By mild +treatment, says Dr. Campbell, “with as much consideration as if they had +been delicate ladies, the greatest order was generally maintained in the +hospital.” He was struck with that “estimable trait in the character of +prisoners--observable even among the roughest criminals; I mean the great +attention they bestow on the sick. The most hardened criminals,” he adds, +“are not exempt from this feeling.” + +Such sentiment as this--limited, imperfect, fantastic, as it may sometimes +seem--is the pleasantest spot in criminal psychology. It is also the most +hopeful. In the development of this tenderness lies a point of departure +for the moralisation of the criminal. What a ruined fund of fine feeling, +for instance, was concealed in the young thief, recorded by Lombroso, who +committed suicide by hanging, having first set his shoes on the bed +between two straw crosses, as though to say, “I am going; pray for me.” +“If one thinks of it,” adds Lombroso, “it is a pathetic poem.” + + +§ 6. _Religion._ + +In all countries religion, or superstition, is closely related with crime. +The Sansya dacoits, in the Highlands of Central India, would spill a +little liquor on the ground before starting on an expedition, in order to +propitiate Devi. “If any one sneezed, or any other very bad omen was +observed, the start was postponed. If they heard a jackal, or the bray of +the village donkey, their hearts were cheered; but a funeral or a snake +turned them back. They were also very superstitious about their oil. The +vessel was not allowed to touch the ground until the oil had been poured +upon the torch, and then it was dashed on the earth; and from that moment +until the job was finished no water touched their lips.”[67] + +Among 200 Italian murderers Ferri did not find one who was irreligious. “A +Russian peasant,” remarks Mr. Kennan, “may be a highway robber or a +murderer, but he continues nevertheless to cross himself and say his +prayers.” Dostoieffsky also notes the religious ardour with which the +convicts gave candles and gifts to the church. All those who live by +unlawful methods, said Casanova, confide in the help of God. Naples is the +most criminal city in Europe for crimes against the person; the number of +murderers there is about 16 in 100,000, while in Italy generally it is +8.12; and in Ireland (the least criminal land in Europe) it is about 5. +Naples is also the most religious city in Europe. “No other city,” +observes Garofalo,[68] “can boast of such frequent processions; no other, +perhaps, is so zealous an observer of the practices of the church. But +unfortunately--as an illustrious historian [Sismondi], speaking of the +Italians of his day, wrote--‘the murderer, still stained with the blood he +has just shed, devoutly fasts, even while he is meditating a fresh +assassination; the prostitute places the image of the Virgin near her bed, +and recites her rosary devoutly before it; the priest, convicted of +perjury, is never inadvertently guilty of drinking a glass of water before +mass.’ Those words of Sismondi’s,” Garofalo adds, “are as true to-day as +when they were written.” Of Marro’s 500 criminals, 46 per cent. were +regular frequenters of church, 25 per cent. went irregularly. Among sexual +offenders the proportion of frequenters rose to 61 per cent. A man of +sixty, known to Marro, imprisoned for rape on a child of eight, was much +scandalised at the irreligious talk of some of his companions. “I do not +imitate them,” he said; “morning and evening I say my prayers.” + +Among women, the governor of Saint Lazare remarked to M. Joly, it is +especially the criminals by passion who are superstitious, thieves very +slightly so; they are practical women. + +It must not be supposed that there is insincerity or hypocrisy in the +religion of criminals. For the man of low culture the divine powers lend +themselves easily to the succour of the individual, and it is always as +well to propitiate them. German murderers believe they can do this +crudely, according to Casper, by leaving their excrement at the spot of +the crime. A rather higher grade of intelligence will effect the same end +by prayer. A wife who was poisoning her husband wrote to her +accomplice:--“He is not well ... if God wished it. Oh, if God would have +pity on us, how I would bless Him! When he complains [of the effects of +the poison] I thank God in my heart.” And he answers, “I will pray to +Heaven to aid us.” And she again, “He was ill yesterday. I thought that +God was beginning His work. I have wept so much that it is not possible +God should not have pity on my tears.” Lombroso found 248 tattooed +prisoners out of 2480 bearing religious symbols, while the slang of +criminals witnesses to a faith in God, in the immortality of the soul, and +in the church. When a woman who had strangled and dismembered a child, in +order to spite its relations, heard her sentence of death pronounced, she +turned to her advocates and said, “Death is nothing. It is the salvation +of the soul that is everything. When that is safe, the rest is of no +account.” + +It is clear how easily religious beliefs and religious observances, +especially in Catholic countries, lend themselves to the practices of the +ignorant criminal, and it very rarely happens that the criminal condemned +to death fails to avail himself of the ministrations of the chaplain (only +once in more than thirty years at La Roquette), and frequently to respond +to them with gratifying eagerness. In religion his primitive emotional +nature, with its instability and love of sentiment, easily finds what it +needs. A French chaplain of experience and intelligence told M. Joly that +he had “more satisfaction” with his prisoners than with people of the +world. The Rev. E. Payson Hammond, who has conducted many missions to +prisoners, finds very great aptitude for conversion among them. Of the +convicts of the State Prison of Jefferson City, in the United States, for +instance, he remarks:--“Many hearts were melted to tears, and I believe +that a very large number were converted.” “Convicts at their last hour,” +wrote Lauvergne, “nine times out of ten die religiously. Whatever the +enormity of their crimes, they all leave durable recollections in the +heart of the priest who assists them. He sees them long afterwards in his +dreams, beautiful and happy.” + +When the criminal is not superstitiously devout, he is usually stupidly or +brutally indifferent. Maxime du Camp, during a visit to the prison of +Mazas, at service time on Sunday, had the curiosity to look into +thirty-three cellules, to observe the effect of the ceremony: three were +reading the mass; one stood up, with covered head, looking at the altar; +one was on his knees; one displayed a prayer-book, but was reading a +pamphlet; one wept with head buried in his arms; twenty-six sat at their +tables, working or reading. + +It seems extremely rare to find intelligently irreligious men in prison. +The sublime criminals whom we meet with in Elizabethan dramas, arguing +haughtily concerning Divine things and performing unheard-of atrocities, +are not found in our prisons. Free-thinkers are rarely found. A trifle +will induce the prisoner to inscribe himself as Protestant, instead of +Catholic, or _vice versâ_, or to change from one side to the other; but +out of 28,351 admissions to three large metropolitan prisons, remarks the +Rev. J. W. Horsley, only fifty-seven described themselves as atheists, and +this number, he adds, must be further reduced as containing some Chinese +and Mahommedans. It should be noted that a profession of atheism would +deprive the prisoner of no advantage or privilege open to the others. Mr. +Horsley once resolved to keep notes of the first twelve consecutive cases +of those who on entrance described themselves either positively as +atheists or negatively as of no religion. The results were interesting: 1 +was a thief, a rather ignorant person, whose chief reason for being an +infidel was that his parents had “crammed religion down his throat.” 2 an +ex-soldier, a heavy drinker, and when asked why he had described himself +as an atheist, “he said he only called himself mad;” he was actually +insane. 3 a burglar, who said he meant that he never attended church +because he had seen so much hypocrisy among professing Christians; in a +few days he gave up the designation of atheist. 4 was a swindler, a great +liar, and probably insane. 5 was a lad of nineteen, of very little +intellect, who had deserted from the army; his father had been “a follower +of Bradlaugh.” 6 a German Jew, who frequented Christian churches, but not +having been baptised, simply did not know how to describe himself. 7 an +intemperate schoolmaster, charged with deserting his family; he meant that +he had ceased to attend religious worship because he was conscious that +his religion was merely formal; his “atheism” was simply a form of +penitent self-abnegation. 8 a conceited lad of seventeen who had assaulted +his guardian, and had adopted atheism to justify his spirit of revenge. 9 +a young man who had robbed his employer; he was brought up under religious +influences, but having attracted attention by objecting to revealed +religions, became a Secularist lecturer. 10 a prostitute and +dipsomaniac with 150 convictions; always called herself an atheist when +she was in a bad temper or drunk. 11 a young baker who had taken poison; +called himself an atheist under influence of laudanum; goes regularly to a +Congregational Chapel. 12 a girl of fifteen; she meant that she rarely, if +ever, attended any place of worship. So that only in two or three, or at +most four cases out of the twelve, was there profession of atheism in any +legitimate sense of the word. + +[Illustration: PLATE XII.] + + +§ 7. _Thieves’ Slang._ + +Every profession, every isolated group of persons, almost every family +possesses a more or less extended set of words and phrases which are +unintelligible to strangers. This dialect is termed in English _slang_, in +French _argot_, in Italian _gergo_. The most highly developed and the most +widely extended slang of this kind is that used by habitual criminals. +Every country has its own thieves’ slang, but within the bounds of that +country the slang is generally intelligible; the Lombard thief, Lombroso +remarks, can understand the Calabrian; Parisian _argot_ is intelligible at +Marseilles. The use of criminals’ slang marks the recidivist. “When a man +talks _argot_,” said the Abbé Crozes, “he is registered in the army of +evil-doers.” + +“I was jogging down a blooming slum in the Chapel, when I butted a reeler, +who was sporting a red slang. I broke off his jerry, and boned the clock, +which was a red one, but I was spotted by a copper, who claimed me. I was +lugged before the beak, who gave me six doss in the Steel. The week after +I was chucked up I did a snatch near St. Paul’s, was collared, lagged, and +got this bit of seven stretch.” That is a pickpocket’s history of his +arrest as narrated to Mr. Davitt. Here is the translation:--“As I was +walking down a narrow alley in Whitechapel, I ran up against a drunken +man, who had a gold watch-guard. I stole his watch, which was gold, but +was seen by a policeman, who caught me and took me before the magistrate, +who gave me six months in the Bastille [the old House of Correction, +Coldbath Fields]. When I was released I attempted to steal a watch near +St. Paul’s, but was taken again, convicted, and sentenced to seven years’ +penal servitude.” + +Mr. Horsley has an interesting passage on English thieves’ slang, which I +will transcribe at length:--“Of multifold origin, it is yet mainly derived +from Romany or gipsy talk, and thereby contains a large Eastern element, +in which old Sanskrit roots may readily be traced. Many of these words +would be unintelligible to ordinary folk, but some have passed into common +speech. For instance, the words bamboozle, pal (companion, a friend), mull +(to make a mull or mess of a thing), bosh (from the Persian), are pure +gipsy words, but have found some lodging, if not a home, in our +vernacular. Then there are survivals (not always of the fittest) from the +tongue of our Teutonic ancestors, so that Dr. Latham, the philologist, +says--‘The thieves of London’ (and he might still more have said the +professional tramps) ‘are the conservators of Anglo-Saxonisms. Next there +are the cosmopolitan absorptions from many a tongue. From the French +_bouilli_ we probably get the prison slang term ‘bull’ for a ration of +meat. ‘Chat,’ thieves’ term for house, is obviously _château_. ‘Steel,’ +the familiar name for Coldbath Fields Prison, is an appropriation and +abbreviation of Bastille; and he who ‘does a tray’ (serves three months’ +imprisonment) therein, borrows his word from our Gallican neighbours. So +from the Italian we get _casa_ for house, filly (_figlia_) for daughter, +donny (_donna_) for woman, and omee (_uomo_) for man. The Spanish gives us +_don_, which the universities have not despised as a useful term. From the +German we get durrynacker, for a female hawker, from _dorf_, a village, +and _nachgehen_, to run after. From Scotland we borrow _duds_ for clothes, +and from the Hebrew _shoful_ for base coin. Purely of native manufacture, +however, and entirely artificial, are the two classes of rhyming and +back-slang which mingle with cant to make a whole. By the former, any word +that rhymes with the one you mean to use is put in its place, and +gradually becomes accepted. This has the merit of unintelligibility when +it is desired not to let chance passers-by know of what we are speaking, +which naturally occurs not seldom in the days of detectives and +plain-clothes constables. Suppose I have ‘touched’ (_i.e._, been +successful in some robbery), and feel inclined for some relaxation in +company with my sweetheart (or one of them), I might address her +thus--‘Come, cows and kisses, put the battle of the Nile on your Barnet +Fair, and a rogue and villain in your sky-rocket; call a flounder and dab +with a tidy Charing Cross, and we’ll go for a Bushey Park along the frog +and toad into the live eels.’ This would apparently be but a pendant to +the celebrated bit of nonsense extemporised by Foote, but, as a matter of +fact, to a master or mistress of rhyming slang it would at once be +understood as--‘Come, missus, put a tile (hat) on your hair, and a +shilling in your pocket; call a cab with a tidy horse, and we’ll go for a +lark along the road into the fields.’ And the second class of manufactured +slang is that largely patronised by costermongers. It is called +back-slang, and simply consists of spelling (more or less accurately) +words backwards. Thus--‘Hi, yob! kool that enif elrig with the nael ekom. +Sap her a top o’ reeb and a tib of occabot,’ is only, ‘Hi, boy! look at +that fine girl with the lean moke (donkey). Pass her a pot of beer and a +bit of tobacco.’ The art or merit of this form of slang consists in the +rapidity, often remarkable, with which such words can be reversed. Thus a +gentleman, wishing to test the skill of a professor of the art with a word +not in common use in the market, asked his coster friend what was the back +slang for hippopotamus. At once he answered, ‘Summatopoppy,’ the _y_ being +euphoniously put for _ih_.”[69] Mr. Davitt thus describes a form of slang +(“thieves’ Latin”) commonly used by professional burglars and the superior +order of thieves:--“Its chief peculiarity consists in reversing the +position of the syllables of a word containing more than one syllable, and +making two syllables of all words having only one in ordinary +pronunciation, by adding a vowel or liquid consonant to the first or +second part of such word. By the application of this simple rule to slang +words, the ‘lingo’ becomes too complicated for any but the initiated to +understand. For instance, if two thieves were hunting for game, and one +were to see a policeman, he would shout to his comrade--‘Islema! Ogda the +opperca!’ which in slang is--‘Misle! Dog the copper!’ Otherwise--‘Vanish! +See the policeman!’”[70] Very similar practices prevail in the thieves’ +slang of France, Italy, Spain, and India. It is doubtless, indeed, +universal. Closely allied is the kind of slang called _largongi_, by +which, for example, _macaroni_ becomes _lacaronimique_, and _vache_, +_lachevane_. + +The chief interest of the slang of habitual criminals is psychological. It +furnishes us with a curious insight into the mental processes of those who +invent and use it; it is itself an embodiment of criminal tendencies; in +Victor Hugo’s vigorous phrase, “C’est le verbe devenu forçat.” It is full +of metaphorical expressions, of objects named after their attributes. +Nearly everything is degraded, sometimes with coarse and fantastic wit. +“While the imagination of the poet gives a soul to animate objects,” +remarks M. Joly, “the imagination of the criminal transforms living forms +into things, assimilates man to animals.” Thus the skin for them is +leather, the face _un mufle_, the mouth _un bec_, the arm _un aileron_. +The body is called the corpse, and to eat is to put something in one’s +corpse. The woman who supports a bully is called his saucepan (_marmite_), +a friend _un poteau_; _ne pas être méchant_ means to be a fool. Everything +is thus vulgarised. The criminal instinctively depreciates the precious +coinage of language, just as to his imagination money is at Paris “zinc,” +and in the Argentine Republic “iron.” + +The soul in French _argot_ is significantly called _la fausse_, and the +conscience _la muette_; shame is simply _la rouge_. In English slang, as +Mr. Horsley remarks, “the delicate expression ‘fingersmith’ is descriptive +of a trade which a blunt world might call that of a pickpocket. Or, again, +to get three months’ hard labour is more pleasantly described as getting +thirteen clean shirts, one being served out in prison each week. The +tread-wheel again is more politely called the everlasting staircase, or +the wheel of life, or the vertical care-grinder. Penal servitude is +dignified with the appellation of serving her Majesty for nothing, and an +attempt is even made to lighten the horror of the climax of a criminal +career by speaking of dying in a horse’s night-cap--_i.e._, a halter.” So +that while the better things of life are degraded, there is a tendency to +elevate those that truly indicate degradation. + +The criminal slang of France and Italy has been studied in its +psychological bearings much more thoroughly than the English, by Mayor, +Lombroso, and others. Lombroso considers that the most marked and most +curious characteristic of criminal slang is that already noted by which a +thing is designated by its most salient qualities from the criminal point +of view. Thus the advocate becomes the _blanchisseur_ or _imbiancatore_ +(washerman); the _juge d’instruction_, the _curicux_ or the _père +sondeur_; the sermon, _l’ennuyeuse_ or _tediosa_; the purse is _la santa_; +the court, _la juste_. “The guillotine,” remarks M. Joly, “is designated +without imprecation, without contempt, without hatred, but with a wealth +of expressions and with a resignation, one might almost say a fatalistic +humour, which is not reassuring for them--or for others. The executioner +himself is called the _juge de la paix_.” + +_Etrangler un perroquet_ is to drink a glass of absinth, the allusion +being to the colour (green), and also, it is said, to the sensation in +swallowing the absinth, and to other minute points. A prostitute is the +_hôtel du besoin_, a _Louis-quinze_, and also the _bourre-de-soie_, in +allusion, it is said, to murmured offers and a silk dress; the brothel is +_le cloaque_. In Venetian slang a promise is called a shadow. In Bavarian +cant a playing card is _karzerweg_--the road to prison. + +Very strange, remote, and bizarre are some of these slang synonyms, full +of coarse ironies and jests. _Paradouze = paradis_ (_douze_ instead of +_dise_); _saucisse = moi_ (by way of _moi-s-aussi_); _crottard = +trottoir_; _blanchir du foie_ = to intend betrayal (play on _foi_); +_perdreau = pederaste_ (_pedro-pédero_); _herbe sainte = absinthe_; _être +dans l’infanterie_ = to be pregnant (_enfanter_); _moulin à vent = +derrière_; _pape = verre de rhum_ (_Rome_); _veronique = lanterne_ +(_verre_); _vert-de-gris = absinthe_ (play on _vert_ and _verre_, with +allusion to its deleterious properties); _demoiselle du Pont-neuf_ (that +all may go over) = prostitute; _apaier_ = to assassinate; _boire dans la +grande tasse_ = to drown oneself; a knife is a _lingre_ (from Langres, the +French Sheffield); the _souteneur_ (a prostitute’s bully) is called by the +English word _fish_, or some similar name (_poisson_, _goujon_, +_baraillon_, _maquereau_); the prostitute is called _morue_, and _Banc de +Terre-Neuve_ is applied to that portion of the Parisian boulevards lying +between the Madeleine and the Porte Saint-Denis. + +Sometimes the slang of criminals, like that of the rest of the world, +commemorates an historical fact. To dethrone in France is _juilletiser_. +The sun is _le grand Jablo_, Jablochoff’s electric lamps having been the +first used to illuminate Paris. A _coup de Raguse_ is a defection, in +allusion to the Duke of Ragusa. In Italy a drunkard is called a Frenchman, +a beggar a Spaniard, a card-sharper a Greek. In Spain a thief is called a +_Murcio_, from the province of Murcia. + +Words are frequently abbreviated. As examples, Lombroso mentions _tra = +travail_; _ces mess = ces Messieurs_ = the police; _chand = marchand_; +_lubre = lugubre_; _abs = absinthe_; _avoir ses aff = avoir ses affaires_ +(_menstrues_); _mac = maquereau = souteneur_, of a prostitute. + +Very curious are the large number of foreign words, in more or less +corrupted form generally, which are to be found in criminal slang. In the +German cant Hebrew words are numerous; German and French in Italian; +German and English in French; Italian and Romany in English. “Hebrew, or +rather Yiddish,” Lombroso observes, “supplies the half of Dutch slang, and +nearly a fourth of German, in which I counted 156 out of 700, and in which +all the terms for various crimes (except _band-spicler_ for a cheater at +dice) are Jewish.” The presence of archaisms, classical and mediæval, is +also curious. + +It is more interesting to find a revelation of the things in which the +criminal is most intimately interested by noting the wealth and variety of +synonyms for certain words. Thus Cougnet and Righini found 17 words for +warders or police; 9 for the act of sodomy; 7 for plunder. French cant has +44 synonyms for drunkenness, besides 20 for drinking, and 8 for wine, in +all 72; while there are only 19 for water and 36 for money. + +This slang is largely of ephemeral life, but a considerable proportion is +permanent. Its tendency is, however, to die out. The modern +professional criminal avoids slang as he avoids tattooing. + +[Illustration: PLATE XIII.] + + +§ 8. _Prison Inscriptions._ + +Whenever the average human being is secluded for any considerable length +of time from his fellows, he experiences the need of embodying some +literary or artistic expression of himself. This instinct seems to be +deeper and more wide-spread than that which induces some people to leave +their names or other sign manual--the frothiest efflorescence of vain +moments--on the places they visit. There is no vanity here, and it is an +instinct from which no individual, whatever his degree of culture, is +exempt; it is indeed scarcely distinguishable from the instinct which +leads to the production of heroic works of art. The expression must vary +with the individual. I knew a room, the residence of a long succession of +medical students during certain weeks of seclusion involved by hospital +duty, of which the walls were covered by inscriptions, humorous or broadly +witty, cleverly artistic sketches, happy lines from the classics. Each +person’s inscription is after his kind: Mgr. Darboy, the Archbishop of +Paris, writes in the form of a cross, “O crux, mentis robur, ave;” Bill +Sykes at Clerkenwell writes, “Lads, your only friend here is your brown +lofe and pint of thick.” + +In general, it seems, the lower the order of culture the more complete and +trustworthy is the inscription as an expression of individual +peculiarities. “The child loves to speak to himself,” as Dr. Corre +remarks; “the negro, and especially the negress, think aloud; and if from +restraint or distrust the criminal keeps silent his most intimate +thoughts, he feels himself compelled to fix them wherever he may find +himself, on the walls of his prison, or on the books that are lent to him. +It is for himself, for himself alone, that he writes what he cannot or +dare not say, and these revelations are very curious for the +psychologist.” His desires and lusts, his aspirations, his coarse satires +and imprecations, his bitter reflections, his judgments of life, are all +recorded in these prison inscriptions on whitewashed walls, cell doors, +margins of books, tin knives, and the bottoms of skilly cans and dinner +tins. In Italy they have been studied in reference to their psychological +significance with characteristic thoroughness by Lombroso; and in England +Mr. Horsley and Mr. Davitt have recorded a considerable number.[71] The +Italian inscriptions, on the whole, are marked by a greater preponderance +of the sentimental, reflective, and imprecatory elements; the English are +generally very practical and material, dealing with food questions, or +giving a concise statement of the event which led to the individual’s +incarceration, with occasional tendency to moral aspiration and didactic +exhortation. Mr. Horsley notes that comparatively few inscriptions are +found on the women’s side, but that these are obscene much more frequently +than on the men’s side. I conclude from Lombroso’s very comprehensive +collection that this remark also holds good of the Italian inscriptions. +It should be added that every inscription is an infringement of prison +regulations; it is “a vulgar question of bread and water to the hungry +author,” and the impulse which produces it must therefore be of +considerable strength. + +Here are a few terse English examples of exploits, probably the work of +old hands, and recorded by Mr. Davitt and Mr. Horsley:-- + + “A burst in the City. Copped while boning the swag. 7 stretch, 1869. + Roll on 1876. Cheer up, pals.” + + “Little Dicky from the New Cut. 10 and a ticket. Put away by a Moll” + (_i.e._, sold by a prostitute). + + “Fullied for a clock and slang” (_i.e._, committed for trial for + stealing watch and chain). + + “Poor old Jim, the lob crawler, fell from Racker, and got pinched” + (_i.e._, James and Racker having gone out to commit till robberies, + the former was apprehended, and the latter escaped). + + “For seven long years have I served them, + And seven long years I have to stay, + For meeting a bloke in our Alley, + And taking his ticker away.” + + “The judge he seven years gave me, + Transported to Van Diemen’s Land, + Far away from my friends and relations, + And the girl with the dark velvet band.” + +The last writer was at Dartmoor, and introduced Van Diemen’s Land because +of the exigencies of rhyme. + +The delights of food inspire much verse, and dissatisfaction with its +quality or quantity a large number of remarks:-- + + “I had for my dinner, ochone! ochone! + One ounce of mutton and three ounce of bone!” + + “Here’s luck to the pint of skilly!” + + “Lord save me from starvashun!” + + “One more month then out we go, + Then for feed of hot Coco; + Fried Bread and steak, Plenty of Beer, + Better luck than we get here.” + + “Cheer up, boys, down with sorrow, + Beef to-day, Soup to-morrow.” + + “O for a pot of beer!” + + “Love is a great thing,” writes an Italian philosopher, “but hunger + surpasses everything.” + + “O who can tell the panes I feel, + A poor and harmless sailor, + I miss my grog and every meal; + Here comes the blooming jailer.” + +A poet, Crutchy Quinn by name, known to Mr. Davitt, and who was himself +acquainted with seven of the prisons he characterises, wrote as follows +with a nail on the bottom of a dinner can:-- + + “Millbank for thick shins and graft at the pump; + Broadmoor for all laggs as go off their chump; + Brixton for good toke and cocoa with fat; + Dartmoor for bad grub but plenty of chat; + Portsmouth, a blooming bad place for hard work; + Chatham on Sunday gives four ounce of pork; + Portland is worst of the lot for to joke in-- + For fetching a lagging there’s no place like Woking.” + +Quinn, in spite of his name, was not an Irishman, but two-thirds of the +prison-poets, Mr. Davitt found, are Irish. + +From the more miscellaneous group of sentimental, religious, moral, +didactic, and reflective sayings may be quoted the following:-- + + “The heart may breake, yet may brokenly live on.” + +Mr. Davitt found a book at Newgate with “Good-bye, Lucy dear,” written +throughout it, and at the end-- + + “Good-bye, Lucy dear, + I’m parted from you for seven long year. + ALF. JONES.” + +A poet of a more caustic school had added beneath this-- + + “If Lucy dear is like most gals, + She’ll give few sighs or moans, + But soon will find among your pals + Another Alfred Jones.” + +Remarks against women are by no means rare, as the following given by +Lombroso-- + + “La donna è un essere inutile; io la stima soltanto quando la ch... + + NAPOLEONE I. EMPEREUR.” + +And another Italian writes-- + + “He is a poor deluded fool who believes in the love and honour of + women.” + +But the women reciprocate this sentiment, and in an Italian illustrated +magazine a woman writes-- + + “In this stormy sea which is called the world I have only found + fleeting pleasures and cruel disillusions. And if I felt any happiness + I had to pay for it with bitter tears. Never believe in the love of + men: for them love is a pastime. When you have sacrificed for them + honour, family, religion, interest, youth, they will turn their + shoulders to you with contempt, in search of other loves. That is the + kind of thing that man is.” + +But the same woman writes passionately to her accomplice in murder, +robbery, and adultery-- + + “Questo foglio dal cuor ti mando, + L’ho scritto ieri sera lacrimando, + L’ho scritto avante cena, + Senza inchiostro e senza penna. + La punta del mio cuore era la penna, + Il sangue delle mia vene era l’ inchiostro, + Se penna e calamaio poco ti costa, + Se merito pietà ti prego d’ una riposta. + Addio, Addio, + Addio, mio bene, + Addio, mio amore, + Tu sei il mio cuore, + Per ti morirò. + 1886.” + +Another woman’s inscription is a pathetic recollection of an old ballad-- + + “I wish to God my baby was born, + And smiling on its father’s knee, + And I, poor girl, lay in my grave, + The green grass growing over me.” + +Beneath a design of a funeral monument a thief wrote this inscription +(translated from Lombroso)-- + + “Here lies the body of poor Tulac Who, tired of stealing in this + world, Goes to steal in another. His happy relatives have erected this + memorial.” + +Very significant of mental vacuity in solitude are some inscriptions given +by Mr. Horsley:-- + + “21,000 times have I walked round this cell in a week.” + + “3330 bricks in this cell.” + + “131 black tiles, 150 red tiles in this cell.” + +Good resolutions and moral exhortations are not uncommon:-- + + “It’s no good crying, you have got to do it, then after you have done + it don’t do it any more; I wont.” + + “Cheer up, girls; it’s no use to fret.” + + “Brethren in adversity, turn your heart to God and be happy.” + + “Good-bye all. Give up drink.” + + “½ pint whisky brought me here--took the pledge for 2 years--renewable + for ever.” + + “The Lord saith, It is good to be here.” + + “The Almighty for master, the devil for servant. Amen.” + + “Fear God and scorn the Devil, then you will not be here again.” + +The Italian inscriptions supply a more dubious exhortation:-- + + “O thieves! our profession is ruined by those rascally judges. But + courage! Forward!” + +This brief account would not be complete if I neglected to give some +specimens of the imprecations, crude erotic aspirations, and perverse +instincts which occupy some considerable space in Lombroso’s collection. I +will leave them untranslated:-- + + “Abbasso il direttore delle carcere e il capo-guardia, che sono due + avanzi di galera. A morte le gafe [warders] e tutti le spie, a morte + il capo-guardiano delle carcere, a morte l’Arca che sono la rovina di + tanti giovani.” + + “Mia adorata stella, quando potrô ch...?” + + “Pensare che in questo stesso luogo vi sono tante bighe [women] che + hanno volontà di farsi infilzare e non possono e tanti p... che + infilzerebbero un cane altro che una f... e non possono farlo.” + + “Pare impossible. Che si possa stare tanto tempo senza piantare il + membro in una f... od in un culo. Eppure sono già 22 mesi che me lo + meno due volte ogni quattro giorno e non sono ancora tisico.” + +The last I will give was written by a woman in a religious book, and is +translated by Lombroso from the Piedmontese dialect-- + + “La Marietta del taglio salute le sue amiche che fanno la porca come + lei, e saluta tutti i giovanotti che l’hanno ch... Menatevi una volta + l’uccello al mio gusto, che io me la meno al vostro, e quando sarô + libera venite a trovarmi che ce l’ho sempra calda e stretta tanto che + volete. Allegri!” + + +§ 9. _Criminal Literature and Art._ + +M. Joly has made some interesting investigations (which he has recorded +recently in the _Archives de l’Anthropologie Criminelle_) concerning the +favourite reading of French prisoners. He found that such criminals do not +read either Molière or Voltaire. Nor do they care for the psychological +novel of character and analysis; they have no taste and no capacity for +introspection; they prefer the _rococo_ style, and an old romance in five +or six volumes called _Épreuves du Sentiment_ is a great favourite at La +Grande Roquette. This is what we should expect from that sentimentalism +which has already been noted. But among the favourite prison novelists +Alexandre Dumas is _facile princeps_. We must not seek to explain this by +finding in Dumas a response to specific criminal instincts. In this matter +prisoners are at one with a very large body of non-prisoners, with George +Sand, Tolstoï, and Rossetti at their head. It is the universally human +quality in the prolific novelist, the anodyne of his entrancing and +unflagging interest, the satisfaction which he offers to the love of +adventure, by which Dumas fetters the criminal as well as the man of +genius. The female prisoners at Saint Lazare, unlike the male prisoners, +are constantly asking for Voltaire’s books, which, however, the sisters +are not able to supply. They are very fond of Henri Conscience, the +Flemish Walter Scott, a preference which is also by no means shared by +the men, and they delight in all sorts of innocent and sentimental +love-stories, although their marginal annotations to these do not always +admit of reproduction. + +If the favourite reading of those whose criminal career is decided is of +so innocent a character, the same cannot always be said of the literature +read by the immature. There is ample and unquestionable evidence to show +that a low-class literature in which the criminal is glorified, as well as +the minute knowledge of criminal arts disseminated by newspapers, have a +very distinct influence in the production of young criminals.[72] +Tropmann, a notorious French murderer, was influenced by novels. The +famous criminal Lacenaire, who glorified himself and was glorified by +others, has had an influence in the production of crime down to our own +day. After every celebrated or startling crime, some weak-minded and +impressionable persons go and commit the like, or give themselves up to +the police under the impression that they have been guilty of the crime. +It is youths and children who are especially prone to the imitation of +criminal events from books or from real life. After the murders associated +with the name of Jack the Ripper several murders by young children took +place throughout the country. + +It is not, usually, until he is in prison that the criminal tries to find +literary expression for himself. This expression takes chiefly the form of +verse, nearly always of a rude character, often affected or boastful, but +not seldom vigorous or pathetic. A criminal has been known to declaim from +the scaffold a poem on his own death; another asked and obtained +permission to present his defence in verse. It would be difficult to give +stronger proof of a predilection for verse forms. + +A song, of which this is a translation, was heard in a Russian prison:-- + +“In this spot where infamy has placed for ever her dwelling, two angels +pant, having in their hands a cross.... But at night, with measured steps, +slowly, slowly, watching the prison, the sentinels turn. Within these +walls are sadness and terror. Without are life, gold, and liberty.... But +the black echo of that slow, slow step warns me: Thou shalt stay, stay.” +This was written and most sweetly sung by a man who had cruelly murdered +his wife. + +The poetic productions of English criminals, however numerous, are of no +great interest; they seem to appear at their best in the inscriptions +already given. Mr. Davitt has a chapter on “Prison ‘Poets,’” but what he +has to say of them is not encouraging, although he tells us that +Portsmouth has the reputation of being “a community of imprisoned +songsters,” and such a specimen as the following does not produce much +desire for more-- + + “’Twas one fine morning I left Wakefield Jail, + Myself and comrades we did cry our fill,” etc. + +One could write as well as that without being a convict. + +Lamb and other good judges thought well of Thomas Wainewright, the forger +and poisoner. As a man of letters he enjoyed considerable reputation as a +critic, and was certainly a man of refined artistic tastes.[73] It is +to-day not easy to detect in him many signs of critical insight or fine +literary ability. He was one of the writers of that “Dandy and Silver Fork +School” of whom Hazlitt says:--“Macassar Oil, Eau de Cologne, Hock and +Seltzer Water, Atta of Roses, Pomade Divine, glance through the page in +inexhaustible confusion, and make your head giddy.” His writing is but the +vain froth of a nauseous life. The following extract is fairly +characteristic:--“It appears to us that the time requireth not the hand of +genius to give it a gusto for the tastes and feelings of what are called +the lower orders,--rather the reverse! We want more macaroni and +champagne, less boxing and bull beef. Now, Mr. Drama [Hazlitt] of the +_London_ seems determined to show his readers that his stomach is +hearty--that he can relish bread and cheese and porter, which certainly +are very fine things in the country, and--when we can get nothing +else--and so far, all this is very well. But surely, in the centre of +fashion, we might be now and then indulged with more elegant +fare,--something that would suit better with the diamond rings on our +fingers, the antique cameos in our breast-pins, our cambric +pocket-handkerchief breathing forth Attargul, our pale lemon-coloured kid +gloves! some chicken fricaseed white, for instance; a bottle of Hock or +Moselle, and a glass of Maraschino.” These things and the like of these +were for Wainewright the only things in the world that seemed desirable, +and his passion for them lay at the root of his crimes. + +In Italy we meet with a genuine, and often traditional body of criminal +songs which is of great interest. It is found in chief perfection in Italy +and the large neighbouring islands, Sardinia, Corsica, and especially +Sicily, where the civilisation is more primitive, and the level of +criminality much higher. In the _Canti Siculi_ of the able and +enthusiastic folklorist, Pitré, there are twenty-seven which he describes +as Prison Songs; with others rather similar in the same collection, the +total amounts to forty-one (4 per cent. of the whole), mostly declarations +of vengeance, laments for lost liberty, imprecations against judges and +police. Some are in praise of prison, as the following:-- + + “Carcere, vita mia, cara, felice! + Lo starmi entro di te come mi piace! + Se spiechi il capo a quel che mal ne dice, + O pensa che far perdere la pace. + Qua sol travi i fratelli e qua gli amici,” etc. + +There are also fine notes of despair, and sweet recollections of the +absent mother or sweetheart. Sardinia, a land of brigandism and +assassination, has produced numerous criminal songs of interest. “The +Corsican songs collected by Tommaseo,” remarks Lombroso, “might be said to +be almost all the creation of brigands. Nearly all breathe vengeance for a +slain friend, or hatred against an enemy, and admiration for murder.” A +ferocious Corsican brigand, named Peverone, who used to leave his mark +behind by covering his victim with capsicums (peperoni), wrote verses +which, says Lombroso, “would not be unworthy of Laura’s sweet singer.” In +such a case as that of Corsica, we must, however, be very cautious how we +use the word “criminal.” In that land barbarous conceptions still rule; a +child is brought up from its earliest days in an atmosphere of robbery and +bloodshed; what in a more civilised country we call “crime” is there to a +large extent the normal social state. It is in Corsica that a parish may +vote a pension to a brigand (the _commune_ of Ciammance, for example, in +1886); that more than half the persons liable to serve as jurymen in an +_arrondissement_ (4400 out of 8000 in one instance) may themselves have +appeared behind the bar; and where a mayor (_arrondissement_ of Sartène) +may issue a proclamation in the following terms:--“Art. I. The carrying of +arms is formally forbidden on the territory of the commune of Levie. Art. +II. Exception is made in the case of persons notoriously in a state of +enmity.” + +As a specimen of French criminal literature I will give a poem by Lebiez, +the young murderer spoken of in Chapter I.; it is addressed to a young +girl’s skull:-- + + “De quelque belle enfant restes froids et sans vie, + Beau crâne apprêté par mes mains, + Dont j’ai sali les os et la surface blanchie + D’un tas de noms grecs et latins, + Compagnon triste et froid de mes heures d’étude, + Toi que je viens de rejeter + Dans un coin, ah! reviens tromper ma solitude, + Réponds à ma curiosité. + Dis-moi combien de fois ta bouche s’est offerte + Aux doux baisers de ton amant; + Dis-moi quels jolis mots de ta bouche entr’ ouverte + Dans des heurs d’égarement ... + Insensé!... Tu ne peux répondre, pauvre fille; + Ta bouche est close maintenant, + Et la mort, en passant, de sa triste faucille + A brisé tes charmes naissants. + Triste leçon pour nons, qui croyons que la vie + Peut durer pendant de longs jours! + Et jeunesse, et bonheur, et beauté qu’on envie, + Tout passe ainsi que les amours! + Aussi, quand, vers le soir, âpre et dur à la tache, + Je travaille silencieux, + Mon esprit suit le monde et, tout inquiet, s’attache + A des pensers plus sérieux, + Je rêve au temps qui passe ... alors je te regarde, + Et, songeant aux coups de destin, + Sur ton front nu je crois lire en tremblant: ‘Prends garde, + Mortel, ton tour viendra demain.’” + +When his papers were returned to him by the police, Lebiez wrote on the +margin of this: “Poor verses! but, bad as they are, they are a faithful +picture of the state of my mind in moments of solitude. In the world I am +amiable and gay. I am taken for a wild fellow, who mocks at everything; +but if they knew my character thoroughly, if they were aware that when I +laugh and joke I have just come out of a solitude of despair and tears! If +they knew that there are sobs at the bottom of my heart when smiles cover +my lips, they would not say that I mock at everything. My gaiety is only a +mask which hides the anguish which has for so long torn my heart.” + +There are one or two examples of newspapers written and conducted by +prisoners. The Abbé Crozes, in his _Souvenirs de la Petite et de la Grande +Roquette_, gives us specimens and a facsimile page of one of these, the +_Tam-Tam_, which, however, only lasted a very short time. Here are a +couple of fragments from this remarkable journal:-- + + FABLE EXPRESS. + + “Un grand tambour-major, pressé par la famine, + Dinait d’une maigre sardine + Et s’en régalait sur ma foi! + _Morale._--On a souvent besoin d’un plus petit que soi.” + + ECHOS ET BRUITS. + + “Nons apprenons avec plaisir à nos lecteurs le projet formé par la + Société Agricole de France, de se servir des oreilles de Transparent, + pour se livrer à des essais sur la culture des champignons. + + L’abondance et la qualité du fumier que contiennent ces vastes + esgourdes, leur grandeur, leur système d’aération promettent aux + amateurs de cèpes les résultats les plus satisfaisants.” + +Very different from the _Tam-Tam_ is the _Summary_, a newspaper published +at the Elmira Reformatory, New York. This newspaper, largely written by +prisoners and, at one time at all events, edited by a prisoner, contains, +besides original contributions and the news of the Reformatory, a summary +of general news; and by its tone and its method of selection, it compares +favourably, as it has been said, with many newspapers published outside +prison-walls. The following contribution to the _Summary_ is from “a +bright young burglar,” about eighteen years old, and is entitled “God and +the Robin”; it has an allegorical and personal significance:-- + + “Early in the morning, long before the lazy cock crows, you may hear + the robin singing his welcome to the sun. He has been watching through + the darkness for the first rays of coming day, and as they appear he + pours forth the melody as an expression of his joy. All is quiet till + his music rends the air, and as you listen you are inspired with + thoughts of Him who made the robin and you. Perhaps the sweet song is + a prayer of thanks to God for sheltering him from the dangers of the + night. Do they know of God? Who can tell? Perhaps He is the cause of + what we in our ignorance call instinct. Once as I listened to their + music I fell asleep, and dreamt of a house near the sea. It had a lawn + in front, on which was a robin hopping in search of food for her + young. But as she hopped about the sky seemed to grow darker. I knew + that a storm was approaching, and when it came I saw the robin cling + to the tree for shelter. But the wind was fierce, and it tore her from + the branch, and in spite of all her efforts it bore her away out over + the ocean, farther and farther from the land, till at last, when its + energy was spent, its fury gone, it left her on the ocean with no land + in sight to guide her to her home; and as she flew she thought of her + little ones at home, and of her mate. She thought she was flying to + them, but every little effort was taking her farther away, though she + knew it not. When at last she began to tire, she looked at the + restless waters, but they offered her no relief; and in her frightened + cry I seemed to hear her say, ‘O where shall I rest my weary wing?’ + But in the murmuring of the ocean she heard no reply, so she could but + fly on till darkness came, when, utterly exhausted, she fell upon the + cruel waves and died. And He who made her will receive her when the + course of life is past. Cannot the little robin find in that house of + many mansions a place to rest her weary wing? Is heaven made for man + alone? Are not these little creatures who never offend God, but + worship Him with the purity and happiness of their little hearts, + entitled to the joys of hereafter? Who can doubt it?” + +The following interesting dialogue in the Socratic manner--“An Imaginary +Conversation between two Members of the Casuistry Class”--is also by a +very young criminal, who was also something of a poet:-- + + “Did you not agree last Sunday with the member of our class who said + that life in prison is a state of slavery? + + No, I did not. In fact, I am astonished at your question. I rather + think it is _not_ a state of slavery. + + That is a very curious belief. + + It may appear to be; but I think it can be proved to be logical. You + say that imprisonment for wrong-doing is slavery; but what is slavery? + + I should define it to be the involuntary subjection of one person to + the will of another. + + But cannot a person be a slave to passion and to other qualities of + mind as well as to persons? + + Yes. + + Then your definition is obviously incorrect. I would define slavery as + a state in which one’s actions are regulated by some power over which + he has no control. Would you agree with me? + + Well, I think I would. + + Very well. Having agreed upon a definition of slavery, we will discuss + whether life in prison is slavery. Now, let me ask, why are men sent + to prison? + + Usually for violating the law. + + Well, do you believe that men steal, for instance, voluntarily? + + Undoubtedly. + + Your tone is rather confident, so I daresay you can tell me _why_ men + steal? + + In order to get certain articles that will enable them to live more + comfortably, or which they desire to have. + + That is, you mean that they have certain feelings--such as laziness, + love of gain, etc.--which they wish to gratify? + + Well, yes. + + But if a man had not these feelings he would not steal? + + I think not. + + Then these feelings regulate his conduct in stealing? + + It seems so. + + But you agreed that he whose conduct is regulated by some power other + than his own free will is a slave. + + Well, I am afraid you have caught me again. + + But do you admit it? + + I do. + + Then he who prevents this man from stealing is emancipating him, not + enslaving him? + + I see you are right. + + Then one who is in prison for wrong-doing is a free man, not a slave? + + Yes. But suppose that the man has been sent to prison unjustly; what + then? + + To answer your question, I should have to know what your conception of + true freedom is. True freedom is, as it appears to me, the triumphing + of the spirit or better part of man over the flesh or weaker part; + that is, acting according to one’s highest conception of what is + right. Do you agree with me? + + I do. + + Then do you not think that the truly righteous man, be he in prison or + out, is free? Do you not see that a man who does right, even though he + lose fortune or life by doing so, is freer than the one who allows his + conduct to be regulated by fear, malice, or other passions? Remember + that a man may be free in a dungeon and bound down with chains, and + that he may be an abject slave and be clothed in purple.” + +The _Summary_ perhaps does something to encourage priggishness, but +priggishness, it need scarcely be said, indicates a far higher moral level +than the vacuous brutality which lies behind so large a proportion of +prison inscriptions. + +So far we have been dealing with writers who are first and above all +criminals. It is necessary to mention a few artists and men of letters +who, while distinctly criminals, are not primarily criminals. Villon is +generally named at the head of these, and with good reason, as he has +himself supplied the evidence by which he must be counted a criminal. But +Villon was a poet, and a great poet; his crimes never degraded his art. It +is worth noting that almost the only passage[74] which Lombroso quotes to +prove such degradation is, on independent grounds and apparently with +good reason, regarded by Jannet, Villon’s editor, as spurious. + +Cellini, as self-revealed in his wonderful autobiography, bears more +distinct marks than Villon of instinctive criminality. Crime is, however, +rare among great sculptors; on the other hand it has been, as Lombroso +points out, very common among painters; numerous are the examples of +murder, cruelty, theft, sexual offences, among distinguished painters; +alcoholism is also very common. + +Casanova, a man of various and extraordinary abilities, has in his +_Memoirs_, of which the strict historical accuracy is now generally +accepted, produced one of the most valuable and interesting records of the +eighteenth century, and at the same time a most complete and complaisant +history of his own criminal offences. It is difficult to say whether in +him the criminal or the man of genius is most prominent. + +A living poet of some eminence, M. Paul Verlaine, furnishes an interesting +example of the man of genius who is also distinctly a criminal. M. +Verlaine is the chief of the so-called “Decadant” school. The precise rank +that he will ultimately take as a poet is not yet clear; while on the one +hand he has been unduly neglected, on the other he has been unduly +extolled. At his best he excels in delicate passages of vague and mystic +reverie, in sudden lines of poignant emotion. His style, a curious mixture +of simplicity and obscurity, is studded with words borrowed from the +criminal’s argot. His latest volume[75] contains poems which well show his +curious power of expressing the most delicate _nuances_ of sentiment side +by side with the crudest, most unabashed impulses of cynical depravity, +self-revelations of sexual perversity, which might have earned for the +book a title in a line of its own, “L’embarquement pour Sodome et +Gomorrhe.” I do not propose to quote any of these but from a short but +interesting series written during an imprisonment of several years at +Brussels. Here is a poem describing the life of the prisoner:-- + + “La cour se fleurit de souci + Comme le front + De tous ceux-ci + Qui vont en rond + En flageolant sur leur fémur + Debilité + Le long du mur + Fou de clartè. + + Tournez, Samsons sans Dalila, + Sans Philistin, + Tournez bien la + Meule au destin. + Vaincu risible de la loi, + Mouds tour à tour + Ton cœur, ta foi + Et ton amour! + + Ils vont! et leurs pauvres souliers + Font un bruit sec, + Humiliés, + La pipe au bec. + Pas un mot ou bien le cachot, + Pas un soupir. + Il fait si chand + Qu’on croit mourir. + + J’en suis de ce cirque effaré, + Soumis d’ailleurs + Et préparé + A tous malheurs. + Et pourquir si j’ai contristé + Ton vœu tetu, + Société, + Me choierais tu? + + Allons, frères, bons vieux voleurs, + Doux vagabonds, + Filons en fleur, + Mes chers, mes bons, + Fumons philosophiquement, + Promenons-nous + Paisiblement: + Rien faire est doux.” + +I do not know any more interesting document in criminal literature than +one poem, _Læti et Errabundi_, contained in this volume. Fully to +understand the significance of this remarkable poem, it is necessary to +state that Verlaine’s imprisonment was due to an attempt on the life of +his comrade in sexual perversity, himself also a poet of some note. The +latter left Europe, and it is not now known whether he is alive or dead. +To him _Læti et Errabundi_ is addressed. + +I quote the concluding lines:-- + + “On vous dit mort, vous. Que le Diable + Emporte avec qui la colporte + La nouvelle irrémédiable + Qui vient ainsi battre ma porte! + + Je n’y veux rien croire. Mort, vous, + Toi, dieu parmi les demi-dieux! + Ceux qui le disent sont des fous. + Mort, mon grand péché radieux. + + Tout ce passé brûlant encore + Dans mes veines et ma cervelle + Et qui rayonne et qui fulgore + Sur ma ferveur toujours nouvelle! + + Mort tout ce triomphe inouï + Retentissant sans frein ni fin + Sur l’air jamais évanoui + Que bat mon cœur qui fut divin! + + Quoi le miraculeux poème + Et la toute-philosophie, + Et ma patrie et ma bohème + Morts? Allons donc! tu vis ma vie!” + +Verlaine’s very remarkable head, though large, is the head of a criminal +much more than of a man of genius, with its heavy jaw, projecting orbital +arches and acrocephalic occiput, with central ridge--the head which the +acute Lauvergne called Satanic, and which, in its extreme form, he +believed to announce the monstrous alliance of the most eminent faculty of +man, genius, with the most pronounced tendencies to crime. M. Verlaine has +long been a victim to chronic alcoholism, and the author of the _Fêtes +Galantes_ and of some of the most tender lines written in our day is now +most often found within the wards of Parisian hospitals. + + “Je compte parmi les maladroits. + + J’ai perdu ma vie et je sais bien + Que tout blâme sur moi s’en va fondre: + A cela je ne puis que répondre + Qui je suis vraiment né Saturnien.” + +A few words may be added concerning criminal art as shown in design. +Lombroso reproduces numerous drawings, etc., made in prison. They are +generally very rough and slight, never beautiful, but frequently +expressive, rendering character, now and then, in face and attitude, with +ease and felicity. Scenes of murder or robbery, law courts, men hanging +from the gallows, women, mostly nude, with huge or pendent breasts, men or +women in extravagantly perverse sexual attitudes--these are the visions +which come to the criminal in prison, and to which he seeks, by such means +as may be within his reach, to give artistic expression. Sexual imagery, +not beautiful but gross and ugly, undoubtedly has the chief part in these +designs; but it is scarcely necessary to point out that the artificial +conditions under which the prisoner lives is largely responsible for this +characteristic of his art, although not for its generally deliberate +ugliness. + +Dr. Laurent, in his work, _Les Habitués des Prisons_, has treated this +matter more completely than any other writer known to me, and has +reproduced some very characteristic and instructive examples of this art, +although he has not dared to reproduce the more extravagant designs which +he describes. What has chiefly impressed him among the large number of +drawings by prisoners which have passed through his hands is the absence +of any elevated thought, of any noble sentiment. In the erotic designs +there is occasionally an imaginative audacity, but love is always regarded +as a purely physiological act, and everywhere else the design is +pathetically commonplace; it is naturalistic in the lowest sense of the +word, adding nothing, suppressing nothing; and these drawings have +therefore a remarkable family likeness. If there is any great artist of +whom they ever remind us it is Ostade, with his perpetual research of the +mean and degraded, physically and morally, in humanity. Dr. Laurent draws +special attention to a design which appears to represent some winged +angel of hope; there is something in the bold, predaceous face of this +vulgar fairy, in the coarse firm attitude, so suggestive of the things +that alone have left a firm impress on the artist’s mind, that is very +pathetic. In one of those designs only is it possible to catch a glimpse +of the ideal; it is the figure of a woman by a clerk of some education, +and possessed of personal qualities which brought him into relation with +women of a somewhat superior type. The face in this drawing has a tender +and melancholy air; even here, however, the body is drawn in too crude and +realistic a manner. Where these artists succeed best is in the +photographic delineation of commonplace or unpleasant human types, such as +may be seen in large cities, especially after nightfall. There is usually +something hard, cynical, degraded in these types, in their whole bodies as +well as their faces; they remind us of what was said of portraits executed +by Wainewright, that he had contrived to put the expression of his own +wickedness into them. + +These artists also do not succeed in caricature, and rarely attempt it. To +be successful here involves some judgment, delicacy, and insight, and +these the prison artists do not appear to possess. + +In the nude, as I have already mentioned, prison artists take great +delight, and they even achieve a certain amount of success. There is a +certain Hogarthian vigour and ease with which the faces and forms of these +coarse, low-browed, animal, energetic women, with their large pendent +breasts, are brought before us. The only prison sketch I have seen showing +anything more than a crude sense of beauty, any real appeal to the +imagination, or distinct science of form and composition, is a group of +nude women in extravagant attitudes, which Dr. Laurent reproduces; he says +nothing of the artist, except that he was probably a Saint Anthony by +necessity, who, in this scene as of a Sabbath of witches, has given +expression to the dreams that tormented him. It is a genuine piece of +fantastic art, and seems to recall certain designs of the Belgian artist, +Félicien Rops. This design escapes to some extent--and to some extent +only--from the judgment which Dr. Laurent pronounces on the treatment of +sex by criminals:--“Sex is not for them a sacred and mysterious thing, a +mystic rose hidden beneath the obscure vault of the body, like a strange +and precious talisman enclosed in a tabernacle. For them it is a thing of +ugliness, which they drag into the light of day and laugh at.” + + +§ 10. _Criminal Philosophy._ + +One of the most interesting and instructive departments of criminal +literature is that dealing with the criminal’s mental attitude towards +crime. In considering the problems of crime, and the way to deal with +them, it is of no little importance to have a clear conception of the +social justification for crime from the criminal’s point of view. Not only +is he free from remorse; he either denies his crime or justifies it as a +duty, at all events as a trifle. He has a practical and empirical way of +his own of regarding the matter, as Dostoieffsky remarks, and excuses +these accidents by his destiny, by fate. “What contributes to justify the +criminal in his own eyes is that he is quite certain that the public +opinion of the class in which he was born and lives will acquit him; he +is sure that he will not be judged definitely lost unless his crime is +against one of his own class, his brothers. He is secure on that side, and +with so good a conscience he will never lose his moral assurance, which is +the main thing. He feels himself on solid ground, and by no means hates +the knout which is administered to him. He looks upon it as inevitable, +and consoles himself by thinking that he is not the first nor the last to +receive it. Does the soldier hate the Turk who sabres him? By no means!” + +To be caught is the foolish part of the business. “You are a lot of fools +to get in here, myself included,” is one of the prison inscriptions noted +by Mr. Horsley. “Had God wished me to be different, He would have made me +different,” said Goethe. In the same spirit is the philosophy of crime set +forth by a man known to Lombroso: “If God has given to us the instinct to +steal, He has given to others the instinct to imprison us; the world is an +amusing theatre!” It is rare, however, for the criminal to take so lofty a +standpoint as this; more usually he bases the justification for his own +existence on the vices of respectable society--“the ignorance and cupidity +of the public,” as one prisoner expressed it--that he is shrewd enough to +perceive; “it is a game of rogue catch rogue,” a convict told Mr. Davitt. +A youthful French brigand in the days of Charles IX., as he impassively +ascended the scaffold, declared that he was innocent, because he had never +robbed poor people but only princes and lords, the greatest robbers in the +world. “We are poor rogues, and so hanged, while others, no less guilty in +another way, escape,” pleaded Captain Bartholomew Roberts’s fifty-two +pirates, executed at the beginning of the eighteenth century. “Law for the +rich but none for the poor,” is a modern English prison inscription which +would probably have expressed its writer’s meaning better if it had been +transposed. _Quels gredins les honnêtes gens!_ + +An Italian criminal wrote in a book of “Moral Maxims” by Tommaseo: “When +you have read this book become a priest or a master; if not it will be of +no use to you. There are fine maxims in this book, but maxims are no good +in this world, where the god of gold reigns alone. He who has money is +brave and virtuous; all the maxims of Tommaseo are of no use to him who +has none; he will still be treated with contempt.” A Milanese thief said +to Lombroso: “I do not rob; I merely take from the rich their +superfluities; and, besides, do not advocates and merchants rob? Why +accuse me rather than them?” “Knowing,” wrote the murderer Raynal, “that +three-fourths of the social virtues are cowardly vices, I thought that an +open assault on a rich man would be less ignoble than the cautious +combinations of fraud.” J. G. Wainewright, when in prison, said to a +visitor: “Sir, you city men enter upon your speculations and take the +chances of them. Some of your speculations succeed, and some fail. Mine +happen to have failed.” An Italian thief, one Rosati, said: “I am proud of +my deeds; I have never taken small sums; to attack such large sums I +consider a speculation rather than a theft.” Another Italian thief said +that there were two kinds of justice in the world: natural justice, that +which he himself practised when he shared the proceeds of his thefts with +the poor; and artificial justice, that which is protected by social laws. +The criminal is firmly convinced that his imprisonment is a sign that the +country is going to the dogs. A prison inscription quoted by Lombroso +runs: “I am imprisoned for stealing half-a-dozen eggs; Ministers who rob +millions every day are honoured. Poor Italy!” “We are necessary,” a +brigand chief said proudly to his judges; “God has sent us on the earth to +punish the avaricious and the rich. We are a kind of divine scourge. And +for the rest, without us what would you judges do?” + +This conviction of the criminality of the honest is engrained in the +criminal mind, and one meets it at every turn. “Who doesn’t deserve the +galleys?” was a remark often heard by Dr. Lauvergne at the convict +establishment at Toulon, and the same idea was cynically expressed by +Lacenaire:-- + + “Buvons à la sagesse, + A la vertu qui soutient! + Tu peux sans crainte d’ivresse, + Boire à tous les gens de bien.” + +Most people must have observed, in talking with persons of vicious +instincts, the genuine disgust which these so often feel for the slightly +different vices of others and their indifference to their own. So the man +in prison feels indulgence for his own offence and contempt for his more +cautious brother outside who continues to retain the respect of society, +feelings which the latter heartily reciprocates. Every individual, +whatever his position, feels the need of a certain amount of _amour +propre_. “I may be a thief, but, thank God, I am a respectable man.” + +Among the criminal songs still found in Sardinia there is one (quoted by +Lombroso from Bouillier’s _Les Dialectes et les Chants de la Sardaigne_) +that may be quoted here. “Tell me,” asks Achea of the priest, “if I have +nothing to eat, and if I find wherewith to appease my hunger, may I take +the goods of another?” “Believe me, if you have nothing to eat, and you +meet with something, you would be a fool not to take it.” “That is a good +counsel, but here is a difficulty: what I have taken in this way, ought I +to return it?” “No. The observance of the law would subject you to a fast +too severe; you are a great fool if you do not understand that in the face +of necessity all things belong to all.” That is the morality of a lawless +and primitive society, but it has points of contact with some of the +latest and highest developments of social morality. Tolstoï would justify +it; as, to a certain extent, a respected archbishop has justified it. + +“The laws of society,” remarked an educated convict to Mr. Davitt, “are +framed for the purpose of securing the wealth of the world to power and +calculation, thereby depriving the larger portion of mankind of its rights +and chances. Why should they punish me for taking by somewhat similar +means from those who have taken more than they had a right to? My dear +sir,” said he, “I deny your contention that there is any such thing as +honesty in the world at all.” This man, who had a considerable +acquaintance with literature and philosophy, maintained soberly that +“thieving was an _honourable_ pursuit,” and that religion, law, +patriotism, and bodily disease were the real and only enemies of humanity. +“Religion,” he would observe, “robbed the soul of its independence, while +society’s social laws, in restraining the desires and faculties given by +Nature to men for the purpose of gratification, declared war against the +manifest spirit of the law of our being.” Patriotism he termed “the +idolatry of an idea, in the stupid worship of which the peace of the +world, and the wellbeing of its inhabitants, were sacrificed by the +lawmakers and others who profit thereby.” + +Lombroso found the following note written with a piece of iron in a +politico-economical work, under the chapter of “Considerations on the +Co-operative spirit”: “The best governed nation is that which has fewest +thieves. Do you want to abolish thieves? See to it that the working man +and the peasant have work to do, and are better paid for it; then they +will be content, and will have nothing to say against the government; in +consequence they will do their duty, and will not be forced to do evil.” +Another, reading a book about an official who had been removed from the +administration of taxes, wrote: “I advise you all to be public thieves, +and then you will be free citizens and men who are useful to society, and +will be decorated with medals and crosses. This man here was a public +thief; but I am only a private robber; if I had been a public one I should +not have been here.” Again: “Why are those who wear coarse breeches +treated in one way, and those who are dressed finely and wear yellow +gloves treated in another? Why are the first called thieves while the +others are said to have committed undue appropriation? Have not both +classes broken the commandment which says simply ‘Thou shalt not steal’?” +In a confession made to Gisquet, the prefect of police, a different +standpoint is taken up; the criminal justifies himself, not on moral +grounds, but as a man of the world: “You regret the robbery that I have +committed, and you call it a bad action; the insignificant act for which I +have been condemned is the first link in a chain which will not, I hope, +finish so soon. If I were not a thief by vocation, I would be one by +calculation. I have faced all the good and the evil of other occupations, +and I find that this is the best. What would have become of me among +honest men? A bastard, with no one to take care of me, what could I do? +Become a shopman, earn at the most six hundred francs a year, and having +sweated all my life, grow old and ill and finish at a hospital. Take men +in the mass and you will find them all humiliated, slaves, disgraced; it +is never talent and honesty that are recompensed; vice prospers more often +than virtue. + +“In our profession we depend on nobody; we enjoy the fruits of our +experience and ability. I know well that we may end in prison; but out of +the 18,000 thieves in Paris not one-tenth are in prison, so that we enjoy +nine years of freedom against one of prison. Besides, where is the working +man who is not sometimes without work? For the rest, the working man has +to pledge his things at the pawn-shop, while we, when we are free, want +for nothing, and lead a life of constant feasting and pleasure. + +“The fear of being arrested, and the pretended remorse that people talk +of, are things to which one soon gets accustomed, and which finish by +giving a pleasurable emotion. + +“And then, if we are arrested, we live at the expense of others, who +clothe us, feed us, and warm us, all at the cost of those whom we have +robbed! + +“I will say more. During our detention in prison we think out and prepare +new means of success. + +“If I regret anything, Mr. Prefect, it is that I am condemned to only a +year. If it had been for five I should have been sent to a central prison, +where I should have met some old hands, who would have taught me some new +trick, and I should have returned to Paris clever enough to live without +working. + +“They talk of thieves as of persons always in misery, and who always +finish their lives in prison; but they think of those whom they have seen +in their apparent state when arrested. They do not consider that many have +secret resources, and that most of them are clever enough to get on +without ever having anything to do with justice.” This man, it is clear, +had aspirations and ideals which, though they found satisfaction by a +different method, were much the same as those of ordinary persons. He +represents the professional criminal. + +“Ah! too often it is forgotten,” wrote G. Ruscovitch, a prince among +forgers, the accomplished student of science, the perfect master of +half-a-dozen languages, “too often it is forgotten that criminals are +members of society. All these bodies, sometimes abandoned by all except +the satellites charged to guard them, are not all opaque; some of them are +diaphanous and transparent. The vulgar sand which you tread under foot +becomes brilliant crystal when it has passed through the furnace. The +dregs may become useful if you know how to employ them; to tread them +under foot with indifference and without thought is to undermine the +foundations of society and to fill it with volcanoes. The man who has not +visited the caverns, can he know the mountain well? The lower strata, for +being situated deeper and farther from the light, are they less important +than the external crust? There are deformities and diseases among us to +make one shudder; but since when has horror forbidden study, and the +disease driven away the physician?” + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE RESULTS OF CRIMINAL ANTHROPOLOGY. + + +So far I have been summarising the chief results obtained in the +investigation of the criminal up to the present date by many workers in +various lands. There is not very much doubt about the results here +recorded; even when they do not agree among themselves, it is still +generally possible to account for the divergency by the special character +of the group to which the individuals examined belong. But when we come to +consider the significance of the facts we are no longer on such safe and +simple ground. There is, however, no reason here for surprise when we +remember how youthful a science criminal anthropology is. Even the related +science of general anthropology is still young, and much of our progress +in it still lies in the unlearning of our errors, so that, as Virchow +recently remarked, we know considerably less about anthropology to-day +than we knew some years ago. The same is true of another related science, +the study of insanity. If therefore my conclusions as to the place of the +criminal in nature may seem to be somewhat cautious and tentative, it must +be remembered that we are still slowly feeling our way to firm ground. Few +as are the general conclusions which we may boldly assert, they are yet +sufficient to throw a flood of new light on the nature of the criminal, +and on his treatment and prevention. + +I purpose to touch briefly on certain relationships of crime and the +criminal, the consideration of which will lead us naturally to a clearer +view of the criminal’s position. We will glance at (_a_) the biological +beginnings of crime, (_b_) crime among children, (_c_) the criminal woman +as distinct from the criminal man, (_d_) the relation of crime to vice, +(_e_) crime as a profession, (_f_) the relations of crime to epilepsy and +insanity. + +(_a_) The biological beginnings of crime have been examined by Lombroso, +Lacassagne, and Ferri; and by some have even been traced as far back as +the vegetable world. Thus Lombroso seems to claim those insectivorous +plants studied by Darwin and others as belonging to the category of +criminals. I doubt whether by any tenable definition of the criminal such +a classification can be upheld, and Lomboso himself speaks with less than +his usual decision. An act which is common to a whole species cannot +reasonably be described as criminal. It may be unjust, even cruel, but it +does not thereby necessarily become criminal. If the _Dionea Muscipula_ +that eats an insect is a criminal, much more must the European man who +eats beef or mutton be a criminal. To be criminal the deed must be +exceptional in the species, and must provoke a social reaction among the +other members of that species. We can scarcely hope to find genuine +vegetable criminals, even amongst the parasites. + +When we are dealing with the criminality of animals, concerning which a +large body of evidence has now accumulated, it is necessary to +discriminate. It is well recognised by veterinary surgeons that certain +horses are inclined to be undisciplined and revengeful, and that these +characteristics are associated with distinct cranial anomalies; the Arabs +believe these qualities to be hereditary. There is here certainly a very +close analogy to the instinctive criminal; but we are dealing with an +animal greatly modified by man, and these vices are not recorded as +exercised against their own species so much as against man. The case +(apparently well authenticated) of the horse who pretended to be lame, to +avoid going on military exercise, can scarcely be called criminal; from a +horse’s point of view this might be regarded as a justifiable ruse. The +same may be said of the action of the dog who, finding his favourite place +occupied by another dog, went outside and set up such a furious barking +that the usurper came out to see what was the matter, when the rightful +owner immediately pounced on his old corner. Such a ruse, even though +perpetrated against one of the same species, is not anti-social. It is +only when we are dealing with animals of the very highest order of +intelligence that we find any manifestations that can be at all fairly +described as criminal. Thus among the highly intelligent castors, the lazy +castor is pitilessly chased away by his fellows, to die of hunger, alone, +far from the colony. Idleness, as we know, is a very fundamental +characteristic of the criminal, and the strongly marked social reaction +that we see here shows that the castors have recognised this. Something of +the same kind is seen among elephants. Certain elephants, called rogues, +lead a solitary and unnatural life, and are lacking in the humane and +gentle disposition peculiar to elephants generally. The anti-social +character of these elephants is recognised by their fellows, and when the +solitary elephant endeavours to penetrate into the family life of the +ordinary elephant he is everywhere repulsed, and naturally grows still +fiercer and more anti-social. Such examples as these are the nearest +approaches among animals to what we call criminality. + +[Illustration: PLATE XIV.] + +We have to realise clearly what constitutes criminality when we turn to +the lower human races. To say, as has been asserted, that among savages +criminality is the rule rather than the exception, is to introduce +confusion. Among many savages infanticide, parricide, theft and the rest, +far from being anti-social, subserve frequently some social end, and they +outrage, therefore, no social feeling. These acts are not anti-social; and +many recent investigations, such as those of Élie Reclus, show that there +is under the given conditions a certain reasonableness in them, although +among us they have ceased to be reasonable, and have become criminal. On +the other hand, many acts which the needs or traditions of a barbarous +society have caused to be criminal become in a higher phase of society +trivial or beneficial. + +Tarde remarks, that of the ten crimes which the Hebraic law punished with +stoning, nine have even ceased to be offences in our modern European +societies, and the tenth (rape) has only remained a crime by entirely +changing its character; it has become a crime against the person instead +of a crime against property. He observes also that in a savage society one +of the chief criminal types would be that of the delicate and artistic +natures, sensuous and sensitive, ill adapted for pillaging neighbouring +tribes. Such individuals would be chased away relentlessly, as the +industrious castors chase away the lazy castor, and for the same reasons. +In our societies we have found a use for these people; they minister to +our pleasures, and we render them nothing but homage. But if we are wise +we shall be very tender in arousing our indignation against the social +habits of lower races, even when these involve such an act as parricide, +for the distance between ourselves and even the lowest races is quite +measurable. Our social code is not far removed from that of the Maori who +considered that it was murder to kill the man to whom he had given +hospitality, but not murder to run his spear through the stranger whom he +met on his morning walk. We to-day regard it as a great crime to kill our +own fathers or children; but even the most civilised European +nation--whichever that may be--regards it as rather glorious to kill the +fathers and children of others in war. We are not able yet to grasp the +relationship between men. In the same way, while we resent the crude +thefts practised by some lower races, we are still not civilised enough to +resent the more subtle thefts practised among ourselves which do not +happen to conflict with the letter of any legal statute. + +Criminality, therefore, cannot be attributed indiscriminately even to the +lowest of races. It consists in a failure to live up to the standard +recognised as binding by the community. The criminal is an individual +whose organisation makes it difficult or impossible for him to live in +accordance with this standard, and easy to risk the penalties of acting +antisocially. By some accident of development, by some defect of heredity +or birth or training, he belongs as it were to a lower and older social +state than that in which he is actually living. It thus happens that our +own criminals frequently resemble in physical and psychical characters +the normal individuals of a lower race. This is that “atavism” which has +been so frequently observed in criminals and so much discussed. It is the +necessarily anti-social instinct of this lowlier organised individual +which constitutes the crime. This accounts for the fact that, while in +those districts where brigandage is opposed to popular feeling brigands +are often abnormally constituted individuals, in other districts where +there is no social feeling against brigandage (as in some outlying parts +of Italy) the brigand may present no unusual characteristic, mental or +physical. The social environment exerts no selective influence; there is +nothing to thrust the abnormal person into brigandage rather than into any +other occupation. + +To admit, therefore, in the criminal, a certain psychical and even +physical element belonging to a more primitive age is simple and perfectly +reasonable. It has been observed over and over again, independently and +apart from any special theory of criminality. Thus Mr. L. Owen Pike, the +historian of crime in England, who is not an alienist or an +anthropologist, writes:--“Of a very great number of modern habitual +criminals it may be said that they have the misfortune to live in an age +in which their merits are not appreciated. Had they been in the world a +sufficient number of generations ago, the strongest of them might have +been chiefs of a tribe.... With the disposition and the habits of +uncivilised men which he has inherited from a remote past, the criminal +has to live in a country where the majority of the inhabitants have +learned new lessons of life, and where he is regarded more and more as an +outcast as he strives more and more to fulfil the yearnings of his +nature.”[76] Tarde, the cautious _juge d’instruction_, has expressed the +same idea in almost the same words: “Some of them at least would have been +the ornament and the moral aristocracy of a tribe of Red Indians.”[77] +Again, Professor Prins of Brussels, only slightly varying the same +formula, remarks: “The criminal of to-day is the hero of our old legends. +We put in prison to-day the man who would have been the dreaded and +respected chief of a clan or a tribe.” The energy with which Lombroso has +advocated the atavistic element in the criminal is well known; while +Colajanni, in many respects an opponent of Lombroso, remarks: “How many of +Homer’s heroes would to-day be in a convict prison, or at all events +despised as violent and unjust.” + +That this resemblance is not merely superficial, but that some perversity +or arrest of development sometimes produces an individual inapt to our +civilisation, but apt to a lower civilisation which we have outgrown, and +which we call criminal, we have had occasion to observe repeatedly in our +brief summary of the facts of criminal anthropology. It is by no means an +extraordinary fact; it is not so extraordinary as that human beings should +occasionally be born with cervical auricles or supernumerary +breasts--reversions to very far more ancient days. It is not easy to +gather up into one statement the various real or apparent atavistic +anatomical peculiarities noted among criminals. Perhaps the most general +statement to be made is that criminals present a far larger proportion of +anatomical abnormalities than the ordinary European population. Now +this is precisely the characteristic of the anatomy of the lower human +races: they present a far larger proportion of anatomical abnormalities +than the ordinary European population. It is true that our knowledge of +the anatomy of the lower human races is still incomplete, but the evidence +so far as it goes is perfectly clear. It will be sufficient to quote the +distinguished anatomist to whom were entrusted the skulls collected during +the most important scientific expedition of modern times. Sir William +Turner, summing up the _Challenger Report_ concerning these crania, +writes:--“Although their number is certainly too limited to base any broad +generalisation on, as to the relative frequency of occurrence of +particular variations in the different races, there is obviously a larger +proportion of important variations than would occur in a corresponding +number of skulls of the white races.”[78] + +[Illustration: PLATE XV.] + +Our survey of the psychical characteristics of criminals showed that they +constantly reproduce the features of savage character--want of +forethought, inaptitude for sustained labour, love of orgy, etc. It may +not be out of place to remark that we must not attribute these to the +direct influence of atavism. When an original vice of organic constitution +has thrown an individual into a more primitive and remote strata of +society, the influence of environment will itself simulate the effects of +atavism and exaggerate its significance. If the organic impulses of a +man’s constitution have led him to throw in his lot with brigands, he will +not fail to live as a brigand lives--that is, as a barbarian lives. This +is not atavism, though it may be the outcome of atavism, or arrest of +development.[79] + +(_b_) The development of crime is precocious. Rossi ascertained at what +age 46 of his 100 criminals commenced their criminal career. Of these 46, +no less than 40 began before the age of twenty--_i.e._, 1 at four years of +age, 2 at seven, 6 at eight, 1 at nine, 5 at ten, 1 at eleven, 3 at +twelve; and so on.[80] The evidence from France, from England, and from +America gives very similar results. Children may even become expert +professional criminals, and not in Europe alone. Thus, in India, where of +recent years professional poisoning has assumed great development, and to +a large extent taken the place of thuggi, “a Brahman boy at Bahraich, in +May 1885, drugged a party of men travelling with the agent of the Rajah of +Mohsan. Although only twelve years old, this was his fifth appearance in +the dock. Another boy, a few months later, cooked some pulse for three +pilgrims from Gaya; and the pilgrims were picked up shortly afterwards +insensible near the railway yard at Allahabad. This boy had been charged +with committing a similar offence in the May previous, but had got off +because the complainants, impatient of the law’s delay, changed their +story, and attributed their delirium to the heat of the sun.” The +Sonorias, again, in the north-west provinces of India, are wonderfully +expert pickpockets, and they train up their children in the same paths. “A +Sonoria boy of ten or twelve years, with his pretty innocent face and his +clean silk clothes, is a most attractive little object of villainy. His +hand slides into a pocket, and he hands over the contents to a man behind +him, who in his turn makes them over to a third, and returns to watch over +the urchin. If caught, the boy cries and protests his innocence, but his +volubility is against him, for no honest native child can talk like a +Sonoria boy.”[81] + +It is more interesting to note that there is a certain form of criminality +almost peculiar to children, a form to which the term “moral insanity” may +very fairly be ascribed. This has been described by Krafft-Ebing, Mendel, +Savage, and others, and is characterised by a certain eccentricity of +character, a dislike of family habits, an incapacity for education, a +tendency to lying, together with astuteness and extraordinary cynicism, +bad sexual habits, and cruelty towards animals and companions. It shows +itself between the ages of five and eleven, and is sometimes united with +precocious intellectual qualities. There can be no doubt that many of +these develop into instinctive criminals. Sometimes these characters only +appear at puberty, together with exaggerated sexual tendencies, in +children who have previously been remarkable only for their mental +precocity, but whose energy seems now to be thrown into a new channel. + +It is a very significant fact that these characters are but an +exaggeration of the characters which in a less degree mark nearly all +children. The child is naturally, by his organisation, nearer to the +animal, to the savage, to the criminal, than the adult. Although this has +frequently been noted in a fragmentary manner, it is only of recent years +that the study of childhood, a subject of the gravest importance, has been +seriously taken up by Perez and others. + +The child lives in the present; the emotion or the desire of the moment is +large enough to blot out for him the whole world; he has no foresight, and +is the easier given up to his instincts and passions; our passions, as +Hobbes said, bring us near to children. Children are naturally egoists; +they will commit all enormities, sometimes, to enlarge their egoistic +satisfaction. They are cruel and inflict suffering on animals out of +curiosity, enjoying the manifestations of pain. They are thieves for the +gratification of their appetites, especially the chief, gluttony, and they +are unscrupulous and often cunning liars, not hesitating to put the blame +on the innocent when their misdeeds are discovered. The charm of childhood +for those who are not children lies largely in these qualities of frank +egotism and reckless obedience to impulse. + +Most people who can recollect their own childhood--an ability which does +not, however, appear to be very common--can remember how they have +sometimes yielded to overmastering impulses which, although of a trivial +character, were distinctly criminal. The trifling, or even normal +character of such acts in childhood is too often forgotten by those who +have to deal with children. Mayhew, writing in 1862, when these childish +“crimes” were still taken seriously to a terrible extent, remarks:--“On +our return from Tothill Fields, we consulted with some of our friends as +to the various peccadilloes of their youth, and though each we asked had +grown to be a man of some little mark in the world, both for intellect and +honour, they, one and all, confessed to having committed in their younger +days many of the very “crimes” for which the boys at Tothill Fields were +incarcerated. For ourselves, we will frankly confess, that at Westminster +School, where we passed some seven years of our boyhood, such acts were +daily perpetrated; and yet if the scholars had been sent to the House of +Correction, instead of Oxford or Cambridge, to complete their education, +the country would now have seen many of our playmates working among the +convicts in the dockyards, rather than lending dignity to the senate or +honour to the bench.” + +In many persons the impulses of childhood persist in a more or less +subdued form in adult age. The impulses are not yielded to so readily, or +at all, but they are still felt. The examples have often been quoted of +the distinguished alienist, Morel, who, as he narrates himself, seeing a +workman leaning over one of the Seine bridges, felt so strong an impulse +to throw the man into the river, that he had to rush away from the spot; +and of Humboldt’s nurse, who, at the sight and touch of the new-born +child’s rosy flesh, felt the temptation to kill it, and was obliged to +entrust it to some one else. These morbid impulses are perhaps more +closely related to insanity than to criminality, but it is on a borderland +that is common to both. Both child and criminal are subject to such +impulses. + +In the criminal, we may often take it, there is an arrest of development. +The criminal is an individual who, to some extent, remains a child his +life long--a child of larger growth and with greater capacity for evil. +This is part of the atavism of criminals. Mental acuteness is often +observed among criminal children; it is rare among criminal adults. There +is evidently arrest of development at a very early age, probably a +precocious union of the cranial bones. Among savages, also, the young +children are bright, but development stops at a very early age. All who +have come very intimately in contact with criminals have noted their +resemblance to children. Thus that profound and sympathetic observer, +Dostoieffsky, in his _Recollections of the Dead-House_, summing up some of +the light-hearted, easy-going characters of the convicts, says: “In one +word they were children, true children, even at forty years of age.” And +elsewhere he quotes a saying concerning the exile: “The convict is a +child; he throws himself on everything that he sees.” + +(_c_) It is interesting to consider the sexual variations of criminality. +Women are everywhere less criminal than men. The proportion varies, +however, greatly in different countries. In France it is usually about 4 +to 1; in the United States it is about 12 to 1; in Italy and Spain the +proportion of women is very small. In Great Britain, on the other hand, +the proportion of criminal women is, except during the last year or two +(owing probably to changes in police regulations), extremely large, +especially for the greater crimes. There has indeed been on the whole a +steady increase in the proportion of women criminals in England; in 1834 +they were less than 1 in 5; of recent years they have been more than 1 in +4. The greater tendency to recidivism in women has everywhere been noted, +and is extremely well marked in England, where it is rapidly increasing, +and is associated, it seems, with growing habits of alcoholism. Of +incorrigible recidivists a very large proportion in Great Britain are +women; and 40 per cent. of the women committed to prison during 1888 had +been previously committed more than ten times.[82] Even among the juvenile +offenders discharged from reformatory and industrial schools as +incorrigible, it appears that the proportion of girls is double that of +boys. + +While men criminals are everywhere in a more or less marked majority, +there are certain crimes which both sexes commit about equally, and these +are usually the most serious. Thus, as Quetelet remarked, nearly as many +women are poisoners as men, and of parricides 50 per cent. are women. The +crimes of women are essentially domestic, against fathers and husbands and +children. A very large proportion are, directly or indirectly, of a +sexual character. It is curious in this connection to note that Marro +finds marked physical resemblances between women criminals generally and +the class of male criminals guilty of sexual offences; such are less +length of arms and hands, less cranial capacity and greater extension of +the transverse curve of the head. + +It is worth while to enumerate briefly the probable causes of the sexual +variation in criminality. There are perhaps five special causes acting on +women: (1) physical weakness, (2) sexual selection, (3) domestic +seclusion, (4) prostitution, (5) maternity. + +There are firstly the physical and psychical traditions of the race +embodied in the organisation of men and women. The extreme but rather +spasmodic energy of men favours outbursts of violence, while the +activities of women are at a lower but more even level, and their +avocations have tended to develop the conservative rather than the +destructive instincts. Apart from this, even if women were trained in +violence, the superior strength of men would still make crimes of violence +in women very hazardous and dangerous. Under existing circumstances, when +a woman wants a crime committed, she can usually find a man to do it for +her. + +I have already frequently had occasion to note the approximation of +criminal women in physical character to ordinary men. This has always been +more or less carefully recorded, both in popular proverbs and in the +records of criminal trials. Thus Sarah Chesham, a notorious wholesale +poisoner, who killed several children, including her own, as well as her +husband, was described as “a woman of masculine proportions;” and a girl +called Bouhours, who was executed at Paris at the age of twenty-two, for +murdering and robbing several men who had been her lovers, is described as +of agreeable appearance, and of sweet and feminine manners, but of +remarkable muscular strength; she dressed as a man; her chief pleasure was +to wrestle with men, and her favourite weapon was the hammer. + +Marro has recently suggested that sexual selection has exerted a marked +influence in diminishing the criminality of women. Masculine, unsexed, +ugly, abnormal women--the women, that is, most strongly marked with the +signs of degeneration, and therefore the tendency to criminality--would be +to a large extent passed by in the choice of a mate, and would tend to be +eliminated. It seems likely that this selection may have, at all events to +some extent, existed, and exerted influence; it is, however, not +universally accepted. + +The domestic seclusion of women is an undoubted factor in the +determination of the amount of women’s criminality. In the Baltic +provinces of Russia, where the women share the occupations of the men, the +level of feminine criminality is very high. In Spain, the most backward of +the large countries of Europe, where the education of women is at a very +low level, and the women lead a very domesticated life, the level of +feminine criminality is extremely low; the same is true, to a less extent, +of Italy. In England, on the other hand, which has taken the lead in +enlarging the sphere of women’s work, the level of feminine criminality +has for half a century been rising. Reference may perhaps also here be +made to the fact that there is much more criminality among Irishwomen in +England than among Irishwomen at home who lead a more domestic life. It +is a very significant fact that Marro found among his women criminals, in +marked contrast to the men, a very large proportion (35 out of 41) who +possessed some more or less honourable occupation; a large proportion of +the women also were possessed of some property. It may not be out of place +to observe that the growing criminality of women is but the inevitable +accident of a beneficial transition. Criminality, we must remember, is a +natural element of life, regulated by natural laws, and as women come to +touch life at more various points and to feel more of its stress, they +will naturally develop the same tendency to criminality as exists among +men, just as they are developing the same diseases, such as general +paralysis. Our efforts must be directed, not to the vain attempt to +repress the energies of women, but to the larger task of improving the +conditions of life, and so diminishing the tendency to criminality among +both sexes alike. + +Prostitution exerts an undoubted influence in diminishing the criminality +of women, in spite of the fact that the prostitute generally lives on the +borderland of crime. If, however, it were not for prostitution there would +be no alternative but crime for the large numbers of women who are always +falling out of the social ranks. As it is, in those families in which the +brothers become criminals, the sisters with considerable regularity join +the less outcast class of prostitutes; sometimes in league with their +criminal brothers, but yet possessing a more recognised means of +livelihood. There will be something more to say on this point a little +later on. + +The strongest barrier of all against criminality in women is maternity. +The proportion of criminals among young women with children is very +small. Among men criminals the celibates are in a very large majority, but +among women maternity acts as a still greater deterrent. Not only are +young married women comparatively free from crime, but among married +women, as Bertillon pointed out, those with children are distinctly less +criminal than those without children. Of Marro’s 41 criminal women, +although all but one (who was undeveloped and ugly) confessed to having +had sexual relationships, 12 had never been married, 10 were widows, 14 +were married, but of these 7 (50 per cent.) were separated from their +husbands. There is some significance, doubtless, also in the fact that +while in men the maximum of criminality falls at about the age of 25, in +women this is not so. That is the age of maximum child-bearing; the age of +maximum criminality in women is delayed until nearly the age of 35. In the +130 women condemned for premeditated murder, and studied by Salsotto, the +average age was 34. Marro found that for nearly every class of criminals +the average age of the women was much higher than that of the men. It is +clear that the woman without children is heavily handicapped in the race +of life; the stress that is upon her is written largely in these facts +concerning criminality.[83] One might suspect this beforehand. Crime is +simply a word to signify the extreme anti-social instincts of human +beings; the life led most closely in harmony with the social ends of +existence must be the most free from crime. + +It may be said--to sum up our brief discussion of this large question of +women’s criminality--that certain great barriers, partly artificial, +partly natural, have everywhere served to protect women from crime. It is +not possible absolutely to prove this conclusion, because women cannot be +put strictly under the same conditions as men; a woman who lived under the +same conditions as men, it need scarcely be said, would no longer be a +woman. But it is made probable by the considerations here brought forward, +and by statistics. Thus let us take the statistics for one year in a +country where crime is so largely developed, and so carefully studied as +Italy; an average year, 1886, may be selected. It will be found that a +hundred condemned persons of each sex may be arranged according to age as +follows:-- + + +----------------------------------------------------+ + | | Men. | Women. | + | |-----------------|-----------------| + | Below 14 | 1.29 per cent. | 1.41 per cent. | + | From 14 to 18 | 6.04 " | 6.02 " | + | " 18 " 21 | 13.39 " | 10.65 " | + | " 21 " 35 | 46.91 " | 39.38 " | + | " 35 " 50 | 23.29 " | 30.94 " | + | " 50 " 70 | 8.40 " | 11.63 " | + | Above 70 | 0.68 " | 0.57 " | + +----------------------------------------------------+ + +Thus below puberty the relative criminality of girls is rather greater +than that of boys, to become about equal at puberty; then during the +earlier and chief period of child-bearing the criminality of women falls +suddenly, becoming level with that of men at about the time of the +cessation of the child-bearing period; after this the criminality of women +becomes relatively much greater than that of men, becoming again about +the same, and in some years exceeding it, at the age of 70. + +(_d_) One is inclined on first approaching the subject to make the clear +line of demarcation between crime and vice, which is necessary in +practical life. From the anthropological point of view, however, it +appears on closer examination impossible to draw this clear line. + +In the course of Lombroso’s investigations he was surprised to find in the +examination of supposed normal persons certain individuals who presented +in a marked form those anthropologic signs of a low and degenerate type +which he had usually found among criminals. On further inquiry it appeared +that those individuals were of vicious character. Again, it is a +remarkable fact that prostitutes exhibit the physical and psychic signs +associated usually with criminality in more marked degree than even +criminal women. While criminal women correspond on the whole to the class +of occasional criminals, in whom the brand of criminality is but faintly +seen, prostitutes correspond much more closely to the class of instinctive +criminals. Thus their sensory obtuseness has been shown to be extreme, and +it is scarcely necessary to show that their psychical sensitiveness is +equally obtuse. Several valuable series of observations recently made on +prostitutes in Italy and elsewhere have brought out interesting results in +this respect. Thus, for example, Dr. Praskovia Tarnovskaia examined at St. +Petersburg fifty prostitutes who had been inmates of a brothel for not +less than two years, and she also examined, for the sake of comparison, +fifty peasant women of so far as possible the same age and intellectual +development. She found (1) that the prostitutes presented a shortening, +amounting to half a centimetre, of the anterior, posterior, and transverse +diameters of skull; (2) 84 per cent. showed various signs of physical +degeneration--irregular skull, asymmetry of face, anomalies of hard +palate, teeth, ears, etc.; (3) 82 per cent. had parents who were habitual +drunkards; (4) 18 per cent. were the last survivors of a large family of +eight to thirteen children who had died early. Prostitutes may fairly be +compared to the great class of vagabonds among men, who also live on the +borderlands of criminality, and who also present a larger proportion of +abnormalities than even criminals. Dugdale, in his valuable and thorough +study of the “Jukes” family of criminals in America, shows that while the +eldest sons in a criminal family carry on the criminal tradition, the +younger sons become paupers or vagabonds, and the sisters become +prostitutes. Of 250 recidivists condemned five times at Paris nearly all +have begun by vagabondage. Mendel has examined 58 vagabonds in the +workhouse at Berlin. He found 6 absolutely mad; 5 weak-minded; 8 +epileptics; 14 with serious chronic disease; in the remaining 25 there was +without exception pronounced mental weakness. We see here the organic root +of the hopelessly idle, vicious character of the vagabond class. A +philanthropic gentleman at Paris offered employment of various kinds, with +payment at four francs a day, to all those who came to him complaining +that they were dying of hunger and could get no work. 545, out of 727, did +not even present themselves; some came and disappeared after the first +half-day, having claimed their two francs; only 18, or 1 in 40, continued +to work. It is not sufficiently known that these poor creatures, who form +such an extensive recruiting field for crime, are already, by the facts of +their physical organisation, cut off from the great body of humanity. They +need much more intelligent treatment than the antiquated workhouse is able +to supply. + +We must be careful not to confuse vice and crime. At the same time we have +to recognise that they both spring from the same root. The criminal is +simply a person who is, by his organisation, directly anti-social; the +vicious person is not directly anti-social, but he is indirectly so. The +criminal directly injures the persons or property of the community to +which he belongs; the vicious person (in any rational definition of vice) +indirectly injures these. They are both anti-social because they are both +more or less unfitted for harmonious social action, both, from organic +reasons, more or less lazy. Criminals and prostitutes, as Féré remarks, +have this common character, that they are both unproductive. This is true +also of vagabonds, and of the vicious and idle generally, to whatever +class they belong. They are all members of the same family. + +(_e_) We saw in Chapter I. that there is a fairly well-marked class of +professional criminals. They are the _élite_ of the criminal groups; they +present a comparatively small proportion of abnormalities; their crimes +are skilfully laid plots, directed primarily against property and on a +large scale; they never commit purposeless crimes, and in their private +life are often of fairly estimable character. They flourish greatly in a +civilisation of rapidly progressing material character, where wild and +unprincipled speculation is rife, as in the United States; their own +schemes have much of the character of speculations, with this difference, +that they are not merely unprincipled but are against the letter of the +law; notwithstanding the ability and daring they require, they are a +relatively unskilled kind of speculation. + +Tarde, and perhaps one or two writers following him, have endeavoured to +show that all crime is professional, and that every physical and psychic +characteristic of the criminal may be explained by the influence of +profession. Tarde’s always alert and intelligent advocacy makes it +necessary to take note of this position, although in this unqualified +shape it has not met with much adhesion at the hands of scientific +investigators. I am persuaded, he says, that every large social class has +its own characteristics. “If one examined hundreds or thousands of judges, +lawyers, labourers, musicians, taken at random and in various countries, +noting their different characters, craniometric, algometric, +sphygmographic, graphologic, photographic, etc., as Lombroso has examined +hundreds and thousands of criminals, it is extremely probable that we +should ascertain facts not less surprising; thus, for instance, we might +succeed in finding _instinctive lawyers_--born to defend instinctive +criminals.... I should like to see the instinctive criminal opposed to the +instinctive man of science, or the religious man, or the artist. It would +be curious to see him compared to the moral man, and to learn if the +latter is the antipodes of the criminal physically as well as +morally.”[84] + +Tarde has again more recently stated his position: “One knows that at the +first glance at a woman a skilful observer infallibly divines her habits +of prostitution.... Among the innumerable varieties of human nature which +appear at the surface of a race and proceed perhaps from its lowest depths +(for the variations of a theme are, I believe, its true _raison d’être_, +and not _vice versâ_), every social or anti-social profession operates a +selection to its own profit; it attracts the organisms most adapted to the +kind of life which it leads, and to the end which it pursues, so that if +one submitted to anthropometric measurement lawyers, doctors, priests, +merchants, especially those who have the most decided vocation for their +profession, we should not fail to find for each category the proportional +preponderance of a certain number of peculiarities, morphologic or +physiologic, elsewhere in less proportion. It must inevitably be so +whether a career is open to every one or shut up as a caste, for in the +latter case hereditary accumulation of acquired aptitudes from the use of +the same functions transmitted from generation to generation produces an +analogous effect, even with superior intensity.”[85] The recent +investigations of Bertillon at the Paris Prefecture of Police have shown +that by large photographs of the hand it is possible to detect the worker +at a large number of crafts. By such acquirement as this, as well as by a +process of natural selection, the men of every class develop a special set +of psychic and physical peculiarities; thus Tolstoï, in his _Death of Ivan +Ilyitch_, has admirably described the special attitude and manner common +to professional men generally, and in this general professional class +there are subdivisions, so that every professional man instinctively +recognises his fellows. It is so among criminals. Mr. Davitt sketches, for +instance, the special class of “hooks,” or professional pickpockets, “so +well outlined in gait, constant use of slang, furtive looks, almost total +want of tact in their ordinary conduct, with an instinctively suspicious +manner in almost all their actions, that they are as easily +distinguishable from the other criminals of a prison as they are +recognisable to their constant pursuers, the police, when abroad in the +world.” + +If we were to look at the matter in a rather more thorough and scientific +manner, there can be no doubt that the previsions of Tarde would be +justified, and that men would fall into certain natural anthropologic +groups, according to their habitual modes of feeling and thinking and +acting, the nature of each person, to some extent, “subdued to what it +works in, like the dyer’s hand.” In each class there would be different +degrees in sensory perception, in cranial shape and size, in muscular +development. Such investigations will no doubt be systematically carried +out in time. At present, owing to the extraordinary apathy of +anthropologists, and consequently the general indifference to the +importance of studies connected with the development and varieties of men, +scarcely anything is known regarding the matter. + +But important as professional selection is, it cannot account for +everything. Indeed no serious attempt has been made to substantiate it by +reference to the details of criminal anthropology. M. Tarde is a +magistrate; no scientific man would have attempted to account for all the +facts that have now accumulated by professional selection and acquired +habits. + +It is interesting to note that Topinard, the distinguished anthropologist, +who has bestowed some severe and not unmerited criticism on portions of +Lombroso’s work,[86] while accepting the professional theory of crime, by +no means considers that it is sufficient to explain the whole of the +facts; remembering the teaching of Lélut and Baillarger, under whom he had +studied mental disease, he calls in the aid of the morbid +element:--“Criminals constitute a special professional category in +society, in the same way as men of letters, men of science, artists, +priests, the labouring classes, etc., but a complex category in which the +most diverse elements enter: the insane or those predisposed to insanity, +epileptics and those predisposed to epilepsy, the alcoholic, the +microcephalic, the macrocephalic, those predisposed by some vice of +organisation or of development, anterior or posterior to birth, betraying +itself sometimes by very evident anatomical anomalies, those who are +predisposed by family traditions and inclinations, those whose moral +instincts are perverted by individual education and social environment, +and finally those who are criminals by accident, without preparation or +predisposition.”[87] Professional characters will carry us a long way when +we are seeking to account for natural social groups. But in the +anti-social groups another and more morbid element enters. It is indeed +largely the presence of morbid elements which gives these groups their +anti-social character. + +(_f_) The morbid element in criminality has sometimes been too strongly +emphasised, but it would be idle to attempt to deny its importance. The +frequency with which insanity appears among criminals, even when the +influence of imprisonment may with considerable certainty be excluded, is +well ascertained. Of recent years also the close connection between +criminality and epilepsy and general paralysis has often been shown. I +have several times pointed out that the resemblances between criminals +considered as a class and the insane so considered are by no means great; +at many points they are strongly contrasted. The resemblances with +epileptics, on the other hand, are anthropologically very marked, as +Lombroso was the first to point out in detail. He has also observed that +those regions of Italy which produce most epileptics produce also most +criminals. Epilepsy has a certain relationship to insanity; it tends +naturally to weak-mindedness, although some of the world’s greatest men +have been epileptics; and there is in epilepsy a tendency to the +development of brutal, unnatural, and bloodthirsty instincts. The slighter +and more concealed forms of epilepsy offer also a very fruitful field for +investigation in this respect.[88] + +But the roots of criminality are not only deeper than professionalism, +they are deeper also than any merely acquired disease. I have frequently +had occasion to note the remarkable resemblances between criminals and +idiots. There is the same tendency to anatomical abnormalities of the +muscles, arteries, bones, etc.; in both the muscular system is weak; there +is the same tendency also to small and weak hearts, with valvular defects. +There is, again, the same sensory obtuseness, with the same exception in +the case of sight, which is remarkably good, with rarity, it seems, of +colour-blindness. Criminality, like idiocy, tends to run in the line of +the eldest sons, and in both the hereditary influences are frequently bad. +Cranial asymmetry is common in idiots as well as among criminals; and +while meningitis is a common cause of idiocy, such evidence as we possess +shows that it is also common in criminals. Tubercular disease is again +common in both. Epilepsy, to which so much importance has of late been +attached in connection with criminality, is notoriously common among +idiots, being found among nearly 25 per cent.[89] The relations of +criminality to idiocy have not yet been sufficiently studied. + +The criminal is, however, by no means an idiot. He is not even a merely +weak-minded person. The idiot and the feeble-minded, as we know them in +asylums, rarely have any criminal or dangerous instincts. Another term is +frequently used to denote vicious or criminal instincts in a person who +is, mentally, little if at all defective; he is said to be “morally +insane.” + +The term “moral insanity” was originated nearly half a century ago by an +Englishman, Dr. Prichard, who in his _Treatise on Insanity_ declared that +insanity exists sometimes with an apparently unimpaired state of the +intellectual faculties; and the conception has been developed by +Krafft-Ebing, Maudsley, and many others. The term itself is an unfortunate +one; the condition described by no means falls in easily as a subdivision +of insanity, and it is moreover frequently of a congenital character. +There is now a very general tendency to drop the expression “moral +insanity,” and to speak instead of “moral imbecility.” + +The condition in question, by whatever name it is called, is described by +alienists as an incapacity to feel, or to act in accordance with, the +moral conditions of social life. Such persons, it has been said, are +morally blind; the psychic retina has become anæsthetic. The egoistic +impulses have become supreme; the moral imbecile is indifferent to the +misfortunes of others, and to the opinions of others; with cold logic he +calmly goes on his way, satisfying his personal interests and treading +under foot the rights of others. If he comes in contact with the law then +his indifference changes into hate, revenge, ferocity, and he is persuaded +that he is in the right. Although so defective on the moral side, these +persons are well able to make use of the abstracted intellectual +conceptions of honour, morality, philanthropy; such words are indeed +frequently on their lips, and it is quite impossible to convince them of +the unusual character of their acts. They are absolutely and congenitally +incapable of social education, systematically hostile to every moralising +influence. Being themselves morally blind, it is their firm conviction +that all others are in the same condition; they disbelieve in the +possibility of virtue, and being often possessed of considerable +intellectual ability, maintain anti-social theories with much skill. + +“Moral insanity” does not probably stand for any definite morbid +condition. It is used as a convenient term to describe a certain group of +psychic symptoms which are not found in a developed condition in the +normal man. It is obvious that these symptoms closely resemble those we +have already described as characterising the criminal in his most +clearly-marked form--the instinctive criminal. The morally insane person +has been identified with the instinctive criminal by Lombroso, Marro, +Ferri, Benedikt, Colajanni, and many others. The fusion has, however, been +rejected by some--by Binswanger and Kraepelin, for instance. There can, +however, be little doubt that the two groups overlap in very large part. + +The group of instinctive criminals therefore still stands fairly apart +among the other groups of criminals, approximating, but not fusing with, +these various morbid and atypical groups. The outlines blend, but each +group is distinct at the centre. It will be the work of the future to +arrange, and if necessary to re-form, these various groups. + +It is much to be able to see, even so clearly as we do to-day, the human +classes of arrested or perverted development who lie in the dark pool at +the foot of our social ascent. Even our present knowledge is sufficient to +serve as the justification for a certain amount of social action. We owe +this to the labours of a succession of physiologists, alienists, +anthropologists, and criminologists during the past century. + +Up to recent times the criminal has been regarded as a kind of algebraic +formula, to use Professor Ferri’s expression; the punishment has been +proportioned not to the criminal but to the crime. We are now learning to +regard the criminal as a natural phenomenon, the resultant of manifold +natural causes. We are striving to attain to scientific justice. We are +seeking in every direction to ascertain what is the reasonable treatment +of the eccentric and abnormal members of society, in their interest, and +in the still higher interests of the society to which we belong. + +To seek for light in the fields of biology and psychology, of anthropology +and sociology, has seemed to many a discouraging task. The results are +sometimes so obscure; sometimes, it even seems, contradictory. In +practice, it is said, such considerations count for nothing. Law must only +concern itself with absolute certainties, with abstract formulæ, with +geometrical routine. But human nature will not fit in with formulæ; when +men and women are geometrical figures, an abstract legal system will +answer all their needs. If the path lies through a jungle, what is the use +of the best and straightest of roads that leads astray? If a critic were +to point out to a biologist--to take another illustration from Ferri--the +limitations of the microscope, he would be entitled to reply--But excuse +me, however imperfect the microscope may be, would it be better to +dispense with the microscope? Much less when we are dealing with +criminals, whether in the court of justice or in the prison, or in society +generally, can we afford to dispense with such science of human nature as +we may succeed in attaining. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE TREATMENT OF THE CRIMINAL. + + +If, as now scarcely admits of question, every truly criminal act proceeds +from a person who is, temporarily or permanently, in a more or less +abnormal condition, the notion of “punishment” loses much of its +foundation. We cannot punish a monstrosity for acting according to its +monstrous nature. Moreover, who among us is perfectly normal, and what +tribunal is entitled to punish? The verdict of science is one with that of +Christianity--“Judge not.” + +Some such argument as this has weighed with those thinkers and +investigators who have of late shown a disinclination to talk of +punishment, and have instead spoken of the “social reaction against +crime.” The old conception of punishment was founded on the assumption of +the normality of the criminal; he was a normal person who had chosen to +act as though he were not a normal person--a vine, as it were, that had +chosen to bring forth thorns--and it was the business of the penologist to +apportion the exact amount of retribution due to this extraordinary +offence, with little or no regard to the varying nature of the offender; +he was regarded as a constant factor. Lord Chief Justice Coleridge, not +many years ago, “when addressing,” says the Rev. J. W. Horsley, “in our +hearing, an assemblage of those who had all belonged to the criminal +class, expatiated, somewhat to their astonishment and much to their +gratification, on the iniquity of giving a severe punishment for a theft +that was petty, even though it had been preceded by many thefts and +convictions.” Obviously the punishment was directed at the offence; it was +not necessary to consider the offender at all. This conception, formulated +by theorists who delighted in abstract notions, has been shown to lead +directly into devious paths of metaphysics and ethics; it has, +consequently, been fertile of much vain disquisition. On the whole, the +results of this have not contributed to confirm the credit of the notion, +and it has seemed better--at once sounder theoretically and more +convenient practically--to dispense with this antiquated conception of +punishment. Whenever one person trespasses on the rights of another +person, or of the community to which he belongs, there is an inevitable +social reaction against the person who has committed the anti-social deed. +Society says to the individual who has violated its social feelings--Here, +my fine fellow, we are not going to stand this conduct of yours; we must +have an end of this: and it proceeds to act in accordance with the varying +measure of its wisdom. This is the basis of all legal action against the +criminal; in its crudest form it is Lynch law; in its highly developed +form it shows itself in the elaborate training bestowed on the criminal at +Elmira. Such social action is a solid and permanent fact, independent of +all metaphysical theories; and it is this we are concerned with when we +approach the question of the treatment of the criminal. + +At a very early period in the development of every barbarous race there +arise two institutions for dealing with the criminal--the prison and +another, still more decisive, appearing in various forms, the cross, the +stake, the gallows, the axe. + +I do not propose to give more than a few words to the question of capital +punishment, because it does not seem to be any longer a question of much +magnitude or importance. A century, even three-quarters of a century, ago +it was a different matter. In England especially capital punishment seems +to have flourished luxuriantly. A writer in Elizabeth’s reign says that in +Henry VIII.’s time seventy-two thousand thieves and vagabonds were hanged. +The statement is set down on hearsay evidence only, but is sufficient to +show that the number must have been very large. About a century ago more +criminals, it is said, were put to death in England than in any other part +of Europe; many persons still living remember the days of wholesale +hanging, and even the execution of a child of twelve for rioting. It is +less than half a century since a child of nine was condemned to death for +stealing paint, value twopence-halfpenny, and since men were hanged for +stealing sheep and postoffice letters. + +There can be little doubt that capital punishment is dying out. In +Switzerland, in England, in Italy, for example, the tendency is very +clearly marked. Whether its complete extinction is altogether a matter for +rejoicing is a question concerning which there is not complete unanimity +among those whose opinions carry most weight. An impressive body of +opinion is in favour of putting instinctive criminals to death, not out of +revenge, but in the spirit in which Galen and Seneca advocated the +destruction of incorrigible offenders against social life, regarding them +as diseased members to be removed for the advantage of the whole social +body. Garofalo, the distinguished Neapolitan lawyer, is perhaps the chief +advocate of capital punishment among those who are working for legal +reform. He points out that the death penalty is the only one the criminal +really dreads, and tells of offenders who committed their crimes under the +impression that capital punishment had been abolished, and that they were +to be provided with food and shelter for the rest of their lives. On the +other hand, it has also been shown that the _éclat_ and public interest +involved in a trial for life or death serves as an incentive to the morbid +vanity of criminals. Such a penalty as burning “for example of others, as +hath been accustomed,” according to the phrasing of Henry VIII.’s statute, +has been an example often enough in another sense than the statute +intended. + +On the whole, we may perhaps be well satisfied that capital +punishment--“the shameful practice,” as it has been epigrammatically +styled, “of hiring for a guinea an assassin to accomplish a sentence which +the judge would not have the courage to carry out himself”--is threatened +with extinction in civilised countries. It has the disadvantage of being +irrevocable. There would be little chance of mistake if it were only +applied to recidivists; but these are a class to whom it is rarely +applied. It is certain that mistakes have occurred when in the opinion of +the judge the evidence of guilt was absolutely convincing. It is true that +the chief cause of this extinction in democratic countries is not the +benefit of the criminal, or even the welfare of society; it is a tender +regard for the sentiments of the general public. “To punish murder by +lifelong imprisonment,” as Sir Robert Rawlinson observed, “is a far +severer fate than sudden death, but it is not so revolting.” We have to +see to it that our substitutes for the death penalty are of a humane and +rational character, and that they afford an equal protection to society. +It should never be possible to address to society the words which the +daring Duc de Montausier addressed to Louis XIV. concerning a criminal who +was finally executed after committing twenty murders: “This man has only +committed one murder, the first, and it is you who, by letting him live, +have committed the other nineteen.” But, as Benedikt well observes, to +kill the criminal is never satisfactory, because we do not kill his +accomplices, bad social conditions and defective institutions; we leave +untouched the false social sentiments that urged the unmarried girl to +kill her own child, or the rigid marriage system that made it easier for +the man to kill his wife than to leave her or to allow of her leaving him. +Moreover, it must be said that murderers, whom alone it is considered +justifiable to eliminate by death, are not usually the most degraded of +criminals or the most dangerous to society. In Russia, where capital +punishment for common-law offences was abolished more than a century ago, +murderers are condemned to hard labour for a period of years, after which +they are settled in Siberia. “Eastern Siberia is full of liberated +assassins,” remarks Prince Krapotkine, “and, nevertheless, there is hardly +another country where you could travel and stay with greater security; +while the unceasing robberies and murders of which Siberia complains now, +take place precisely in Tomsk and throughout Western Siberia, whereto no +murderers and only minor offenders are exiled. In the earlier part of this +century it was not uncommon to find at an official’s house that the +coachman was a liberated murderer, or that the nurse who bestowed such +motherly care upon the children bore imperfectly obliterated marks of the +branding-iron.”[90] Mr. Davitt, speaking from an extensive acquaintance +with criminals, says:--“The really hardened, irreclaimable criminal will +never commit a murder.... The most heinous of all offences--murder +deliberately intended and planned before commission--is, ordinarily, the +offspring of the passions of revenge and jealousy, or the outcome of +social or political wrongs; and is more frequently the result of some +derangement of the nobler instincts of human nature than traceable to its +more debased orders or appetites.”[91] Again, Miss Carpenter, in her +_Female Life in Prison_, wrote:--“Some women are less easy to tame than +the creatures of the jungle.... And yet these women are not always in for +the worst crimes: there are few, if any, murderers amongst them; they have +been chiefly convicted of theft after theft, accompanied by violence.” +These observations are entirely in accord with the results of criminal +anthropology; the murderer belongs very frequently to the class of +criminals by passion, the least anti-social of all, and is at other times +frequently the subject of some morbid impulse, epileptic or insane. + +Perhaps the most powerful reason in favour of the probable disappearance +of capital punishment is the humanising influence that would be exerted on +the community generally. The unreasoning outbursts of ferocity in which, +especially among young and emotional democracies, some morbid and +distracted creature who fires at a political personage is hurried with +glee to the scaffold, or some half-witted human thing who commits a rape +is perhaps actually torn to pieces, are not wholesome manifestations of +the social spirit. They are far less excusable than the deeds by which +they are aroused, for the reason that they arise in more normally +constituted persons. So long as capital punishment is legitimate there is, +however, at least the appearance of an excuse for the development of these +brutalising outbursts. All that is finest in civilisation is bound up with +a self-restraint and humanity, as well as a more intelligent insight, +which, while admitting a more chastened social reaction, makes ferocity +impossible. + +Let us turn to the prison. During the last century a vast amount of care +and enthusiasm, philanthropic and administrative, have been expended on +the elaboration and development of prisons. It is needless to sketch the +history of this development, which seems now to have come to a standstill; +it has often been done, and is easily accessible. It is however very +interesting and instructive to take note of the deliberate opinions +expressed during the last few years, from various points of view, by those +who have had the opportunity of studying most intimately the modern +developed prison. + +A curious fate has befallen this ancient institution. In its more +primitive form it now arouses universal disgust and horror. The Russian +prisons of Siberia are, for instance, a by-word of reproach. The physical +and mental torture which they inflict, wholesale and indiscriminately, on +men and women, on political suspects as well as on the lowest criminals, +have been described over and over again, from within and from without, +during the last fifty years, in Dostoieffsky’s _Recollections of the +Dead-House_, by Maximoff, and by Krapotkine, and still, when Mr. Kennan +repeats the old story, a wave of indignation passes across the civilised +world. Elsewhere on the fringe of European civilisation the primitive +prison is still scarcely changed. The Spanish prisons are often filthy and +overcrowded, and the inmates are maintained in laziness. In the Spanish +prison of Ceuta, in Morocco, there are 3000 convicts, mostly for life, and +crowded together, so that 112 sleep in one room.[92] The native prisons +of Morocco are the abodes of oppression, starvation, and filth, where the +innocent and guilty are thrown in together, without any kind of work, and +allowed to die slowly. “The horrors of these places are indescribable. +Often they are underground, damp, and pestilential; always filthy. They +are frequently very crowded, and a dozen or more poor wretches may be +fastened in one chain by their necks, with heavy irons on their wrists and +ankles, unable to stir a foot away from one another for any purpose all +night, and often all day.”[93] “On the highest authority,” says Mr. Cook, +“I am able to say that the prison population of the city of Morocco equals +the free population.” In the interior, where there is no dread of European +influence, things are naturally much worse. In Egypt the prisons are +filthy and filled with untried prisoners. In Greece the prisoners are, +“if possible, dirtier than those of Egypt, no work, no books, and but +little food. Some of the rooms containing ten prisoners were less than +twelve feet square.” Many of the prisons of South Africa are in a wretched +condition, and some of those in the United States are little better. + +A century ago most of the prisons of England could fairly have been +included in any such enumeration as that I have just attempted. “They are +ironed,” wrote Howard of the English convicts of 1773, “thrust into close, +offensive dungeons, and there chained down, some of them without straw or +other bedding. They continue in winter sixteen or seventeen hours out of +the twenty-four in utter inactivity, and immersed in the noxious effluvia +of their own bodies. Their diet is at the same time low and scanty; they +are generally without firing; and the powers of life soon become incapable +of resisting so many causes of sickness and despair.” There was not, as a +recent writer remarks, so much consideration for prisoners in Britain as +there had been in the reign of the Emperor Constantine, for the Romans of +the fourth century did not permit the imprisonment of men in the same room +with women. Howard found a girl locked up all day with two soldiers in the +Bridewell at St. Albans, and in many of the gaols there was insufficient +provision for the separation of the sexes. + +We have changed all that. The best prisons of England, France, the United +States, Belgium, Italy, and some other countries, are models of ingenuity, +cleanliness, and routine. It cannot be said, indeed, that we have +succeeded in hindering communication between prisoners, or in preventing +an illicit traffic in tobacco, etc., or even the practice of unnatural +intercourse; and we do not trouble ourselves too much to reform the +prisoner. Yet even these laxities of discipline have added materially to +the prisoner’s comfort; and if we have not reformed the prisoner we have +at least reformed the prison, an easier task, and one which shows more +tangible results. “The prisoner of the present day is well cared for,” +remarks Dr. Gover, the medical inspector, in a recent Report of the +Directors of Convict Prisons; “he is supplied with all the necessaries, +and not a few of the comforts of life; and his existence is, to say the +least, rendered very endurable. The labour exacted from him is not irksome +in its character, and he is not subjected to any depressing punishment +unless it be for idleness or for serious misconduct.” But the work is not +of an exhausting character, so that there is no very strong motive to +laziness. “Hard labour,” Mr. Horsley remarks, “is such that no prisoner +could get a living outside if he did not work harder.” It is not +surprising that under these circumstances the prisoner flourishes. “In our +prisons now there is,” says Dr. Richardson, “a lower mortality and +probably a lesser sickness than in the most luxuriously appointed and +comfortable houses in the commonwealth.” And what, he asks, is more +natural when we find “epidemic poisons shut out of our prisons; famine +shut out; luxury shut out; drink shut out; exposure to cold and wet shut +out; the acute and most destructive kinds of mental worry shut out; the +hungry strain for to-morrow’s bed and board shut out; the baneful +association with criminal life at large shut out!” + +And yet we are dissatisfied! This comfortable, easy-going routine of the +modern prison is viewed with scarcely more approval by the thoughtful +investigator of to-day than the horrors of the primitive prison. It is +deeply interesting and suggestive to take note of the opinions expressed +during recent years by those most intimately acquainted with the modern +prison. “Why are our prisons failures?” asks Mr. Horsley, who is as +impressed as much as any one by the material progress of prisons. “Men are +asking, and will more loudly ask, ‘Why are our prisons such utter +failures?’ In the face of the phenomena of recidivism, and men and women +with hundreds of convictions, it is absurd to imagine that they are as +deterrent as they should be.” The prisoner is, he points out, but +temporarily suspended from habits of crime by circumstances not under his +own control: “He may even boast of his intentions, but out he must go, +with as much safety to the State as if all mad dogs were muzzled for +twenty-four hours and then all unmuzzled, because it had been found that +in that period a certain proportion ceased to be dangerous; or as if all +small-pox patients were discharged from hospital so many weeks after +reception, whether cured or not.”[94] Another prison chaplain (Rev. C. +Goldney), speaking from an experience of twelve years, writes still more +recently:--“I say, unhesitatingly, that if a society for the manufacture +of criminals were set on foot, that society could in no better way further +its aims than by pressing for the imprisonment of every little boy and +girl who could, on any decent pretext, be brought before a bench of +magistrates. Prison officials well know the hardening influence of gaol +life on the young, and statistics show how unlikely it is that the first +term of imprisonment will be the last in the case of children of tender +years. They learn the secret which should jealously be kept from +them--that a short imprisonment is after all no such very terrible +punishment.” Mr. Michael Davitt has learnt by actual experience the +realities of English convict life at Dartmoor, Portsmouth, and Portland, +and the valuable book in which he has summed up those experiences is full +of wise and fruitful suggestions. After pointing out that philanthropic +intentions on the part of the heads of a department are no guarantee for +their administration at the hands of warders and assistant-warders, he +continues[95]:--“Penal servitude has become so elaborated that it is now a +huge punishing machine, destitute, through centralised control and +responsibility, of discrimination, feeling, or sensitiveness; and its +non-success as a deterrent from crime, and complete failure in reformative +effect upon criminal character, are owing to its obvious essential +tendency to deal with erring human beings--who are still men despite their +crimes--in a manner which mechanically reduces them to a uniform level of +disciplined brutes. There is scarcely a crime possible for man to be +guilty of, short of murder, which should not, in strict justice, be +expiated by seven years’ infliction of a punishment that has been brought +to such a nicety of calculation that there is the closest possible +surveillance of every one undergoing it night and day, together with an +unceasing conflict between every feeling in the prisoner that is superior +to a mere condition of animal existence and the everlasting compulsion to +refrain from almost all that it is natural for man to do, and to do what +it is to the last degree repugnant for any rational being to consent to +perform. Yet wretches who have had a London gutter or a workhouse for +their only moral training-school, and who have been subsequently nurtured +in crime by society’s other licensed agencies of moral corruption, receive +ten, fifteen, and sometimes twenty years for thefts and crimes which +should, in justice, be expiated by a twelve months’ duration of such +punishment. It is these horribly unjust penalties that beget many of the +desperadoes of Portland, Chatham, and Dartmoor, the murderers of warders, +the malingerers, and the partial maniacs, and which implant in the minds +of convicts that ferocious animosity against law and society which turns +so many of them into reckless social savages.” Prince Krapotkine has also +had practical acquaintance with prisons, and his conclusions also are +deserving of study. In his very interesting book, _In Russian and French +Prisons_, after describing the routine of the Maison Centrale at +Clairvaux, one of the best-arranged of modern prisons, he adds:--“Such is +the regular life of the prison, a life running for years without the least +modification, and which acts depressingly on man by its monotony and its +want of impressions; a life which a man can endure for years, but which he +cannot endure--if he has no aim beyond this life itself--without being +depressed and reduced to the state of a machine which obeys but has no +will of its own; a life which results in an atrophy of the best qualities +of man, and a development of the worst of them, and, if much prolonged, +renders him quite unfit to live afterwards in a society of free +fellow-creatures.” And again he remarks:--“The real cause of recidivism +lies in the perversion due to such infection-nests as the Lyons prison is. +I suppose that to lock up hundreds of boys in such infection-nests is +surely to commit a crime much worse than any of those committed by any of +the convicts themselves.”[96] M. Émile Gautier, a companion of Prince +Krapotkine’s, who has written a series of remarkable articles on this +subject,[97] calls the prison a hot-house for poisonous plants. He points +out what has often been remarked by others (Mr. Davitt, for instance), the +great difference between the “bon détenu” and the “bon sujet.” “The +recidivists are always the most easy to manage, the most supple--or the +most hypocrital--and therefore the favourites with the officials. The +misfortune is that this ‘bon détenu,’ according to the formula, soon +becomes under this _régime_ as incapable of resisting his comrades, +instinctive criminals or professional evil-doers, as the warders, and as +little refractory to temptation, to unwholesome stimulus, to the +attraction of an illicit gain, or to the contagion of bad example, as to +discipline. He can only obey--no matter whom!” And elsewhere he says: “It +is well to remark that there is not one of the passions, natural or +factitious, of man, from drunkenness to love, which cannot find in prison +at least a semblance of satisfaction.... It need not be said that the +prisoner afterwards carries out with him into the world all these +abnormal vices in a more developed form. The prison indeed, as it is +organised, is a sewer throwing out into society a continuous flood of +purulence, the germs of physiological and moral contagion. It poisons, +brutalises, depresses, and corrupts. It is a manufactory at once of the +phthisical, the insane, and the criminal.” Dr. Napoleone Colajanni, the +eminent criminal sociologist of Naples, confirms from personal experience +the evidence given by Prince Krapotkine and M. Gautier. A writer who is +peculiarly well informed as to the manners and customs of the criminal +classes in England writes:--“Looking at our present system of dealing with +thieves, examining it from every side, it is clear that nothing can be +more clumsy and inefficient--except for evil. Let any one of robust health +fancy himself a prisoner within four walls, employed day after day in +severest labour, without a face to look at except that of the tyrant +warder or the scowling criminal, without relaxation or kindly intercourse +of any kind; with nothing, in short, to subdue the darker feelings, but +with everything to nourish them. Let any one of robust health fancy +himself enduring this year after year--for a fifth, a fourth, or even half +of a life--and then say what sort of creature he would probably become. +Then there is the expense of a system which does not reform nor get rid of +the thief--in old days gaol fever did the latter when the halter +failed--but merely hoards him up for a while to turn him loose on society +more wolfish than ever. As we deal with the thief he is our most costly +national luxury.”[98] The courts of Paris and of Bourges have not +hesitated to declare that the chief cause of recidivism is to be found in +the prison and its _régime_.[99] In one of the foremost American States, +Ohio, an influential committee, including the Governor of the State, has +reported: “With less than half-a-dozen exceptions, every gaol in Ohio is a +moral pest-house and a school of crime.” The Lord Chief Justice of England +(Lord Coleridge) is reported as saying, in 1885, that “there were few +things more frequently borne in upon a judge’s mind than the little good +he could do the criminal by the sentence he imposed. These sentences often +did nothing but unmixed harm, though he was sure that throughout the +country the greatest pains had been taken to make our prisons as useful as +possible in the way of being reformatories. But, as a matter of fact, they +were not so.” + +M. Laloue, inspector-general of prisons in France, stated before a +commission that “with our existing system, twenty-four hours’ imprisonment +suffices, under certain circumstances, to ruin a man.” The following +conversation ensued. _M. Tailhand_: “There is perhaps some exaggeration in +the statement that twenty-four hours’ imprisonment can ruin a man.” _M. +Laloue_: “I do not exaggerate. I say what I have seen. The prisoner meets +a corrupt recidivist; they appoint a _rendez-vous_ outside, and that man +is lost.” _M. Tailhand_: “He must be a man of very weak character.” _M. +d’Havssonville_: “It is such characters that succumb.” + +Professor Prins, inspector-general of Belgian prisons, and the chief +authority in Belgium on these questions, writes:--“What is the advantage, +unless the necessity is absolute, of putting into prison the head of a +family to devote him to infamy, to compromise him in the eyes of his +fellow-workmen, of his wife, and of his children? Is it not to condemn +these latter to abandonment, misery, and mendicity? Is it not to join to +the wretchedness which is the act of destiny, a wretchedness which is the +act of law? Is it not, in short, to degrade and ruin the delinquent, thus +to deliver him over to the suggestions of despair, and to risk making him +a recidivist?”[100] + +Garofalo, the eminent Neapolitan lawyer, certainly one of the most +sagacious of those who have in recent years studied the treatment of the +criminal, writes:--“Suppose that in some legendary country an austere king +forbade all flirtation with married ladies, and that the punishment +threatened to the guilty one should be a prohibition to leave during +several weeks a certain club, a magnificent hotel, with gardens and +terraces, where this gentleman would find his best friends, his old +comrades at board and game, who, far from blaming him, would be glad to do +the same. In this sympathetic environment we may be sure they would treat +with much contempt the absurd law and the punishment it inflicted. Who +would not laugh to think that it should be pretended that after such a +punishment this individual would not recommence his ordinary life and +commit again the very offences for which he has been punished?”[101] + +“Imprisonment,” affirms Reinach, in his often-quoted work, _Les +Récidivistes_, “especially if short, is an excitation to crime.” “As to +the reformation of the criminal,” remarks Dr. Paul Aubrey, in a recent and +able study, _Le Contagion du Meutre_, “that is a myth; the prison is +still the best school of crime which we possess.” “The houses of +correction are much more houses of corruption,” said a young Italian +thief. “Clever robberies are arranged in prison,” a thief told the Abbé +Moreau; “the prisoners all know each other; once at liberty they can find +one another.” “I have seen young men enter the Grande Roquette,” the Abbé +observes elsewhere, “guilty, but not corrupted, who went out decided to +commit crimes which a few months before they would have regarded with +horror.” + +It is unnecessary, I trust, to accumulate further evidence on this point; +it is a melancholy though far from a difficult task. It must be +sufficiently clear that the modern prison, with its monotonous routine of +solitary confinement, varied by bad company, is fruitful of nothing but +disaster to the prisoner and to the society on which he is set loose. Such +mitigation of its influence as may be found is chiefly due to voluntary +charitable agency. + +There is one group apart from the chorus of damnation which has of late +years greeted the modern developments of the prison. Unfortunately it is a +sinister and terrible group of exceptions. The prison is an incubator for +those who are young in crime, a place of torture for those who possess the +finer feelings of humanity, that is precisely the class of people, +usually, who ought not to be sent to prison; but to habitual offenders, +the confirmed recidivists, precisely the class of people on whom the +prison ought to work as at once a reforming and deterring influence, it is +simply a welcome and comfortable home. It is a well-known fact that the +prison is preferred to the workhouse. “Whole classes,” as Mr. Horsley +truly remarks, “are brought to consider that, from several points of view, +the prison is preferable to the workhouse.” “Amidst the mass of our fallen +sisters in gaol,” a prison matron observes (_Female Life in Prison_), +“there are these strange practical philosophers--women who have weighed +all the chances between the workhouse and the prison, and who, being +compelled to choose between one and the other, strike the balance in +favour of the gaol. A little less liberty, but more kindness and +attention; better food and more friendly faces--only the key turned upon +them, and their sleeping chamber called a cell!” “It is a painful fact,” +remarks Mr. F. W. Robinson, “that the ordinary female convict considers +herself above the woman in the Union. ‘Look at these shawls,’ was said +once by an indignant prisoner upon a new style of shawl being introduced +into the service; ‘do they take us for those poor workhouse wretches, I +should like to know!’” The author of _Five Years’ Penal Servitude_ +says--“A farm-labourer has told me frequently that he worked far harder +for his eleven shillings a week than ever he had at stone-quarrying or +anything else in prison. When at home he seldom, if ever, had meat of any +sort, and his bed was but a poor affair compared to his prison couch. Here +in prison, comparatively speaking, he fared sumptuously every day, and I +can assure the reader he considered the living luxurious compared to what +he had at home.” “There can be no doubt,” as Beltrani-Scalia remarks, +“that the life of a prison is superior, from a material point of view, to +that which most prisoners are accustomed to lead in liberty.” To the +habitual criminal that is everything. The perpetration of offences for +the purpose of obtaining admission to prison is far from uncommon, and the +criminal slang of various nations with its friendly synonyms for the +prison is very significant on this point. There is a popular Sicilian song +which says: “He who speaks evil of the Vicaria [prison of Palermo] ought +to have his face cut. He who says that prison punishes, how he is +deceived, poor devil!”[102] And again: “Here only will you find your +brothers and friends, money, good cheer, and a peaceful time; outside you +are always in the midst of your enemies, and if you cannot work you will +die of hunger.”[103] Reinach mentions a mason who at the beginning of +winter committed a small offence in order to spend the winter comfortably +in a warm prison. The prison of Vienne (Isère) has, it is said, long been +a favourite place of resort during the winter. Several of the hundred +prisoners studied by Rossi had sought in prison a winter refuge. One who +had frequently been in prison before for short terms, said--“Now I’ve had +the good luck to get six months.” A German criminal, who had just been +released from prison, attempted rape. He received a sentence of eight +years’ imprisonment. He rose, thanked the court for the sentence, +regretting, however, that it was not for a longer period, and adding that +he had only committed the offence as an agreeable way of returning to +prison, where alone he found pleasant society and a life free from care. +Manduca speaks of a man, advanced in years, who had just completed a long +term of hard labour, and finding himself without means of subsistence, +killed without any cause an old friend of his childhood. Bretignères de +Courtelles found that 17 out of 115 prisoners entered prison in order to +restore their health. + +The habitual criminal who has grown accustomed to prison life cares for no +other, and is suited for no other. “I have seen men,” said Lauvergne, +“almost dying from home-sickness because they must soon leave the prison.” +Jules Vallès spoke of _l’air vénérable_ of the old convict; Émile Gautier +calls it _l’air reposé_. Prison, he adds, is a kind of nirvana, and he +tells of an old convict who possessed in a high degree this _air +vénérable_, closely resembling Thiers, who, at the end of five years’ +sentence passed at Clairvaux, wrote as follows to the director:--“Sir, you +know me. You know who I am, what I am worth, and what services I can +render you. Now I am about to be thrown up again into the world, where I +shall not know what to do. As soon as I have consumed my allowance in +having a good time I shall immediately get myself arrested. May I beg of +you to have the extreme kindness, as soon as I am again condemned to +several years’ imprisonment, to claim me for Clairvaux? I will inform you +as to time and place, and in the meanwhile kindly reserve my place. +Neither you nor I will have to repent of this agreement.” That letter, +more pathetic than amusing, is the logical outcome of our prison system +quite as much as of our social system. + +The haphazard fashion in which the period of a prisoner’s detention is +fixed on beforehand is quite in harmony with the unsatisfactory character +of the results obtained. It is well known that the criminal courts are +prevented from awarding any sentence between two years, the longest period +of imprisonment, and five years, the shortest legal sentence of penal +servitude. Yet, as the Directors of Convict Prisons point out, “now that +penal servitude is always carried out in prisons at home, there is no +fundamental distinction between the two classes of punishment.” On the +31st of March 1888 there were in English convict prisons 6970 persons. Of +these, 3034 were undergoing penal servitude for 5 years, the lowest term +permitted by law; in the case of one solitary individual the exact period +of 6½ years was required, while 1387 needed 7 years of prison treatment. +Only 6 persons had been guilty of an iniquity equal to 9 years’ penal, but +no fewer than 1022 had committed an offence equivalent to 10 years’ penal +servitude, while 1 person only in England, having managed to just surpass +this sum of iniquity, was in for 11 years. There were 240 in for 20 years, +but only 3 for 21 years, and to 1 individual had been meted out exactly 29 +years. It would be interesting to know by what delicate and complicated +considerations this precise sum of guiltiness was reached. If we turn to +the statistics of the United States at the same period we shall find the +same peculiarities, though the variations in the periods doled out to +long-term prisoners are spread over a wider field; they begin at 1 year, +and include 18 for 50 years, and 82 for 99 years. “The favourite +sentence,” as Mr. Wines remarks, “seems to be two years; then five, then +three, then one, then four, then ten. There is throughout a tendency +apparent to choose sentences, the numbers representing which terminate in +the figure five or a cypher.”[104] In England the decimal unit is held in +chief favour by judges, whether or not they realise what it may mean to +the man who afterwards thus tells his experience:--“There on my cell wall +was the card; it bore my name and my sentence--20 years. No wife to cheer, +no children to prattle at my knee; 20 years! O God! will it ever end? 20 +years,--240 months,--1040 weeks; oh, this dread future!” The sentence may +be just or not, but, whether he will or not, the judge must fix on some +definite term, with such results as we see. When Pantagruel arrived at +Myrelingues, he found that Judge Bridoye, after carefully considering all +the facts of a case, was accustomed to decide it by means of dice; and +Pantagruel fully admitted the humility, piety, and impartiality of this +method. If our judges, before pronouncing sentence, were first to +determine the years to be awarded by a solemn casting of dice, the result +might be as good as those reached by the not very dissimilar system now +adopted. “Are prisons necessary?” asks Prince Krapotkine, and the question +has been variously and timidly echoed in modified forms. Necessary or not, +the institution is still so deeply rooted in civilised societies that it +is idle yet to talk of overturning it. In spite of its acknowledged +inutility we are content to pay very large sums in maintaining it, and no +other method of treatment could be suddenly substituted. In England in +1889 there were 6405 persons undergoing sentence of penal servitude; in +the United States there were recently 31,000 long-term prisoners; the +various species of prisons in Italy contain some 70,000 persons, including +5000 incarcerated for life; in Germany, during six years, according to +Professor Liszt, no fewer than 10,000,000 persons are imprisoned or fined. +It is clearly idle to talk yet of the abolition of so flourishing an +institution: can we give it real social utility? + +The key to the failure of the prison, and a chief clue in its reform, lies +in the system of administering definite and predetermined sentences by +judges who, being ignorant of the nature of the individual before them, +and therefore of the effect of the sentence upon him, and of its justice, +are really incompetent to judge. Enough has been said of long sentences, +the justice of which, it is obvious, must be quite a matter of chance. But +the short-term imprisonments reveal quite as clearly the inadequacy of the +system. The newspapers constantly tell of old offenders who have been in +prison for over a hundred short periods. In a recent report of the Prisons +Board of Ireland, the case of a woman is mentioned who was committed to +Grangegorman prison thirty-four times during 1888, and never received a +sentence for a larger term than fourteen days. This woman had been +committed 146 times in previous years, so that she has undergone in all +180 imprisonments. + +Society must say, in effect, to the individual who violates its social +instincts: So long as you act in a flagrantly anti-social manner, I shall +exercise pressure on you, and restrain, more or less, the exercise of your +freedom. I will give you a helping hand, because the sooner you begin to +act socially the better it will be for both of us. I shall be glad to +leave you alone, and the sooner the better; but so long as I see that you +are a dangerous person, I shall not entirely leave my hold on you. + +That is the only attitude towards the criminal which is at once safe, +reasonable, and humane. If, holding this lamp, we turn to our prison, we +see at once how incompatible with such an attitude is the system of +determining beforehand the exact period of the delinquent’s detention. +Many a man imprisoned for life, to his own misery, the ruin of his family, +and the cost of the State, might with absolute safety to the community be +liberated to-day; it is unnecessary to speak further of the thousands for +whom society, inside or outside prison, has done nothing, and whom it +liberates, with full knowledge that they proceed at once to prey upon +itself. The great fault of our prison system is its arbitrary character. +It is a huge machine working by an automatic routine. The immense +practical importance of criminal anthropology lies in this: that it +enables us to discriminate between criminal and criminal, and to apply to +each individual case its appropriate treatment. + +The first reform necessary is the total abolition of the definite and +predetermined sentence. The indefinite sentence is no longer new, either +in principle or practice; all that is needed is its systematic extension. +It has been adopted by several of the American states, such as +Massachusetts, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Kansas, and it was introduced at +the famous state reformatory of New York at Elmira, by an Act passed in +1877. This Act took from the courts the power of definitely fixing the +period of confinement in prisons until, in the opinion of the managers of +the Reformatory, they may be let out on parole for a probationary period +of six months. No imprisonment was to exceed the maximum term provided by +law for the offence for which the prisoner was convicted. Several thousand +criminals have passed through Elmira, and only a small percentage prove +recidivists. Before a prisoner is paroled a suitable situation is, if +possible, arranged for him. To an Englishman, Frederick Hill, belongs the +honour of first suggesting this fruitful reform, the indeterminate +sentence, and his brother, Matthew Devonport Hill, vigorously supported +the principle. In 1880 Garofalo--independently, it appears--advocated +indefinite imprisonment in a pamphlet entitled _Criterio positiva della +penalità_, published at Naples, and in his great work, _La Criminologie_, +he wisely and consistently advocates the abolition of the definite +sentence of imprisonment. In Germany it was advocated in 1880 by Dr. +Kraepelin, a well-known authority on these matters (_Die Abschaffung des +Straffmasses._ Leipzig), and in 1882 Professor von Liszt, of Marburg, +supported it with the weight of his authority. This fruitful reform, which +sprang up almost at the same time, and with apparent spontaneity among the +Anglo-Saxon, Latin, and Teutonic races, although of such recent growth, +needs little advocacy. It is so eminently reasonable that to state it +seems sufficient to ensure its acceptance. When its advantages are +generally known and realised it will undoubtedly spread in the same way +that it has already begun to spread in the United States. + +While the indeterminate sentence is an absolutely essential reform, if our +prison system is to be redeemed from the charges that now weigh so heavily +upon it, it is still only a preliminary step. + +One of the first and most obvious consequences is the necessity of +reorganising--or, rather, of organising--the prison staff. It is +unnecessary to show here, for it has often enough been shown by those who +are familiar with the inside of a prison, that practically the prisoner is +always at the mercy of the warder. The philanthropic head of the +department, at a distance, must always count for less than the warder, +philanthropic or otherwise, on the spot. Whatever educative and +socialising influences the prison may possess must pass chiefly through +the hands of the warders with whom the prisoner comes chiefly in contact. +It is not necessary to investigate the character and conduct of the +average warder. Those who appoint him and are satisfied with him are the +responsible parties. It is enough to say that the prison warder of to-day +is about as well fitted for the treatment of criminality as the hospital +nurse of a century ago was fitted for the treatment of disease. Every one +now recognises the immense importance for the inmate of a hospital of good +nursing by a trained nurse; the doctor himself is the first to proclaim +the essential nature of skilful and intelligent nursing. Yet the criminal, +in all his manifold variations, with his ruses, his instinctive +untruthfulness, his sudden impulses, his curiously tender points, is just +as difficult to understand and to manage as the hospital patient, and +unless he is understood and managed there is no hope of socialising him. +In Italy, France, Belgium, and Switzerland there are, I believe, +institutions for the training of prison attendants, but as yet they have +been of little effect, as they have not apparently been conducted in +connection with the prison, nor on a scientific basis. Their establishment +is a pressing necessity; no person should be appointed to any position +involving the care of criminals who has not been qualified by training in +such a school. He would here become acquainted with the peculiarities of +the various classes of criminals; he would learn to work with them and to +instruct them; and, not least, he would learn to rate at its proper value +the difficult and important profession on which he was entering. It is +this sense of a noble social function, full of privileges as well as +responsibilities, which has raised nursing to its present high position +and has brought into the ranks of nurses so large a leaven of capable and +refined women. + +At the same time the education of the criminal need not be entirely in the +hands of officers the greater part of whose time is passed within the +prison. There is considerable force in the remark of Dr. Wey, the able +physician of the Elmira Reformatory, concerning the advantage of the +prisoner having highly skilled teachers, fresh from the outside world and +mingling daily in the affairs of men. The barrier which has, in most +civilised countries, been set up between the criminal and the outside +world must be to some extent broken down. This is necessary in the +interests of both parties. The criminal cannot be too carefully secluded +from his fellow-criminals, neither can he have too much of outside +socialising influence, if he is to be won back from the anti-social to +the social world. In some of the colonies, it is said, good results have +come of voluntary visiting. It is necessary, however, that this should be +judiciously regulated so as to exclude fanatical, inexperienced, and +merely curious persons. Mr. Tallack tells us some amusing stories +concerning the results of allowing ignorant and foolish visitors. Thus a +gentleman, by talking of hell-fire, succeeded in so thoroughly +exasperating a prisoner that the latter seized him, and exclaiming, “I +have hell enough here already without you bringing me more of it,” would +have administered summary chastisement had not a warder appeared. It is +obvious that the more we restrict the intercourse of criminals in prison +between themselves the more necessary it becomes to supplement the limited +staff by assistance from without, which, while carefully chosen, must be +chiefly voluntary. On the other hand, if we are to learn to know the +criminal thoroughly, so as to learn at once how to treat him and how to +protect ourselves from him, we must have a certain amount of access. “The +time has now come,” as Dr. Maudsley has well said, “when we ought to use +our prisons as we do our hospitals, not for the care and treatment of +their inmates, but for the advancement of knowledge and the improvement of +man’s estate.”[105] And M. Tarde, speaking, as a _juge d’instruction_, +from a different point of view, insists in his well-known work, _La +Criminalité Comparée_, on the need of every law student completing his +course by an obligatory attendance of six months at the _Clinique +Criminelle_ of a prison. + +When we have caught our criminal we put him at once into solitary +confinement. If rigidly carried out this plan has the advantage of +secluding the criminal from his fellows. Regarded as a rational method of +treatment, cellular confinement is a curious monument of human perversity. +That it should have been established shows the absolute ignorance of +criminal nature which existed at the time; that it should still persist +shows the present necessity for a widespread popular knowledge of these +matters. It may be possible to learn to ride on a wooden horse, or to swim +on a table, but the solitary cell does not provide even a wooden +substitute for the harmonising influences of honest society. To suppose +that cellular confinement will tend to make the criminal a reasonable +human being is as rational as to suppose that it will tend to make him a +soldier or a sailor, a doctor or a clergyman. The mistake here is the old +one that has vitiated so much of human action where the criminal is +concerned--the mistake, that is, of supposing that at all points he is an +average human being. Solitary confinement on a refined and cultured human +being may produce a deep and lasting impression; a period of solitude, +indeed, is for every intellectual person of immense value in helping him +to know himself; though even here, if compulsory and unbroken, it can +scarcely be without demoralising effect. But the case is quite different +when we turn to the vacuous-minded, erratic, and animal person who is +usually the criminal. Solitude produces in him, as Professor Prins +remarks, no intellectual activity, and no searching of conscience; it +serves merely to deepen his mental vacuity and to deliver him over to +unnatural indulgence in the one animal appetite of which he cannot be +deprived.[106] Professor Prins points out, as does Prince Krapotkine, that +the cell excludes all the bracing influences of struggle; the morality of +the cell is submission, punctuality, quietness, politeness to warders. A +moral life shut up in such a frame has nothing in common with social +morality. Beltrani-Scalia, formerly Inspector-General of Prisons in Italy, +is of the same opinion, and remarks that “the cellular system looks upon +man as a brother of La Trappe.” + +Dr. Wey, of Elmira, states the rational method of treatment when he +remarks--“Education means occupation, either mental or physical. The time +of the convict should be so employed in his shop-work and school duties as +to leave him no leisure moments in which to revive the past, and live over +again in memory his criminal days or plan for the future; but each hour +should bring to him its employments and engross his attention till the +time for sleep.”[107] + +The experiments in the treatment of the criminal which are being carried +on at Elmira are probably of more wide-reaching significance than any at +present carried on elsewhere. It is worth while to consider them somewhat +in detail. I select an experience carried on during 1886 and recorded by +Dr. Wey, who had charge of it. On June 5th, 1886, Dr. Wey selected eleven +dullards between the ages of nineteen and twenty-nine. For a period of one +to two years previously these men had made no progress. “In physiognomy +they presented features indicative of criminal tendencies. Not one had +learned a trade, but all had made a precarious living as common labourers, +tramps, hostlers, and street-loafers. One was convicted for assault in the +first degree; five for burglary in the third degree; one for grand larceny +in the first degree; three for grand larceny in the second degree; one for +rape, and one for attempted rape. The environment of most of the men +previous to conviction was bad, many of them confessing to have had +intemperate parents, while one told of an insane, and another of an +epileptic mother.” All however were well nourished, and their functions, +save that of the skin (five had acne and one ichthyosis) well performed. +“An idea of their mental attainments can be formed from the fact that one +could neither read nor write; one barely do either; four understood the +successive steps necessary to work an example in long division, but never +could obtain the correct answer; while the balance came to grief upon the +shoals of rudimentary arithmetic from notation to simple division. Their +stock of information was surprisingly small, being generally limited to a +slight knowledge of the things they liked to eat and the work they +preferred to do.” + +The treatment adopted included a special dietary, bathing, massage, +gymnastics, and a continuation of the usual school-work. The daily +industries of the shop, etc., were suspended. + +The food was varied each day, and was sufficient in quantity without being +excessive; it was weighed out to each, and provided at a common table, +instead of, as usual, in the cells, in unrestricted quantity. The +experience at Elmira shows that better results are obtained when the +amount of food is restricted than when it is unlimited in quantity. Dr. +Wey is strongly in favour of a diet consisting chiefly of milk and bread +and butter. + +The bathing and massage formed a very important part of the treatment. The +routine, after several trials, resolved itself into three baths a +week--_i.e._, one tub and two vapour baths one week, followed the next +week by two tub baths and one vapour. “The tub bath consisted in placing a +man in a tub of water heated to about 100° F., and leaving him there to +rub and soap himself for fifteen minutes or longer. From the tub he was +placed upon a marble slab, where he was drenched with hot and cold water +and sponged. After this the body was spatted until the skin was in a glow, +the muscles pinched and kneaded, passive motions of the joints employed, +followed by a brisk rubbing with a coarse wash-towel or Turkish bathing +mitten, all this being done by a professional trainer, who was available +at the time. Being obliged to make use of the facilities at hand, the +vapour bath was the moist instead of the dry or heated air, and consisted +of turning steam into a room, and maintaining an atmosphere of 115° F.” +This was followed by massage as before. After the bath the men usually +slept until dinner time. + +After dinner they were put through two hours or more of active physical +exercise. In the beginning this consisted of the drill employed in the +case of raw recruits, supplemented by dumb-bell exercises. At first they +were an awkward squad, slow to comprehend an order and deliberate in its +execution. It was some weeks before they were able to march in line and to +keep step. + +On November 7th the class was discontinued, and the men were assigned to +various shops and employments. + +The results of this treatment were in every respect remarkable. As they +slowly advanced in their studies an increased mental activity was noted, +and the workings of the mind were less forced and laborious than at the +beginning. In mental arithmetic they made progress, and were able, with +comparative ease and rapidity, to add three or four single numbers. “The +drill and discipline they were subjected to wrought an improvement in +their physical condition. The baths and stimulation of the cutaneous +system brought the skin to the highest degree of functional activity, +overcoming the integumentary disorders of five noted in the beginning. The +daily drill and dumb-bell exercises hardened and developed muscles that +previously were soft and flabby, and the entire muscular system acquired +firmness and power. The setting-up drill improved the carriage and +conferred a rapidity of action not before indulged in. The aimless +shuffling gait gave way to a carriage inspired by elastic muscles and +supple joints. The faces parted with the dull and stolid look they had in +the beginning, assuming a more intelligent expression, while the eye +gained a brightness and clearness that before was conspicuous by its +absence. With physical culture and improvement there came a mental +awakening, a cerebral activity never before manifested in their prison +life. The purely animal man with his ox-like characteristics seemed to +recede before the intellectual. Their progress in school-work was not +steadily onward, but intermittently progressive.” Whereas in the six +months before the class was formed the men had obtained less than 10/11 of +a mark (for demeanour, labour, and school) per man each month, during the +six months that followed the breaking-up of the class the number of marks +earned was 7-7/16 per month per man. There was a simultaneous and rapid +improvement, moral, physical, and intellectual--an improvement that was +common to all, although more pronounced in some, and which was very +encouraging, considering the material of which the class was formed. A +year later several had been released on parole, and were demonstrating +their ability to maintain themselves honestly, while only two of them, +still in prison, were not doing well.[108] + +The results of this and similar experiments have been so satisfactory that +a fully-equipped gymnasium and Turkish bath are now in course of erection +at Elmira. “Here,” Dr. Wey tells me, “we propose to treat those who are in +arrears both in body and mind, and prepare them for work and study in the +schools of letters and trades. By this plan it is possible to impress +later the mind to a greater degree than could be done by taking up its +cultivation at the time the man comes to us.” + +In 1888, when the Yates bill became law, the productive prison industries +of Elmira had to be suspended. “Within less than a month,” writes Dr. +Wey, “from the passage of the bill, all the men who previously were +employed in productive industries (industries yielding revenue) were being +drilled in military evolutions and tactics. In other words, idleness was +avoided by turning the prison into a military school. The men received +from four to six hours of drill daily, which was sufficient to prevent +them from rusting in their cells. By this means the health of the men was +maintained, and opportunity was afforded for increasing the scope of +school-work, trades, and letters. A drum corps was formed, and instruction +given others in instrumental music, with the sequence that to-day [29th +October 1889] we have a drum and fife corps of about twenty, and a band +composed of twenty or more wind instruments.[109] Two afternoons a week +are devoted to military work, the balance being devoted to technical +instruction. The effect of the military drill and discipline was so good +in the way of a health measure and in improving the carriage of the men +that I doubt if it will soon be discontinued. It was another phase of the +application of physical training.” The report of the able superintendent +of Elmira, Mr. Z. R. Brockway, fully confirms these conclusions. + +Just now the industries of New York prisons are partially re-established. +The Fassett bill, passed in the spring of 1889, enabled various industries +to be apportioned to the various prisons, one prison not to compete with +another, and the number of men engaged in any one industry in a prison not +to exceed five per cent. of the total number engaged in the same industry +throughout the entire state. The question of productive prison industry is +still, however, far from settled. + +The physical and industrial education is not the whole of the training +given at Elmira. A third, and scarcely less important, factor is the moral +and æsthetic training. There is no official chaplain at Elmira. “There +is,” says Mr. Brockway, “in the minds of men, as observed during +imprisonment, an unexplained but actual repugnance to professional, +official, and stereotyped religious phrases, while for the noble character +of the practical Christian, in common affairs, unheralded and unnamed, +there is among prisoners a quick and favourable response.” Although there +are no resident chaplains, various ministers and others--Protestant, +Catholic, and Jewish--attend frequently, and hold services, lectures, +classes, etc. The class in Practical Morality, originated a few years ago +by Professor Collin, has been judiciously managed, and has proved a +valuable feature in the work. The æsthetic culture has been chiefly +carried on by means of the systematic study of literature. The results in +this department have been unexpectedly encouraging. At first the men met +the attempt with sullen stupidity as a new task imposed upon them. +Gradually this impression was conquered; the men slowly began to acquire +an eager appetite for Chaucer and Shakespeare, for Emerson and Browning. +The applications for admission to the English Literature class became very +numerous, and at one time there was so great a run on Jowett’s Plato at +the Reformatory library that a special regulation had to be made +concerning its issue. It is satisfactory to learn that this taste has, in +many cases at all events, survived incarceration, as a wholesome +recreation for leisure hours. “In my work with the class in English +Literature,” writes the instructor in that department, Mr. Douglas, “I +proceed on the basis that the earnest obligatory study--let me emphasise +the word _study_--of mental and moral beauty developes or creates the +mental and moral faculty of appreciation; and, furthermore, that mental +and moral habits may be formed just as certainly as physical habits, and +without any more conscious co-operation of the individual than is required +in physical practice.” It has been mentioned already that a newspaper, the +_Summary_, is published within the Reformatory; it contains both local and +general news, as well as passages from good authors; the inmates +contribute to this paper, and at one time it was ably edited by a +prisoner. It has been said, with justice, that the _Summary_ compares +favourably with the average American newspaper published outside prison +walls. + +The prison, as Professor Collin remarks, must be “a moral hospital.” As +Sir Thomas More said long ago, the end of punishment is “nothing else but +the destruction of vices and the saving of men.” Mr. Brockway, and those +who are working with him, have clearly realised this; the training they +give is rational and scientific, and hence its success. During the +thirteen years from the opening of the Reformatory to the end of 1889, +nearly 4000 prisoners were received at Elmira on an indefinite sentence. +Over 2300 of these were paroled, and of these 15.2 per cent. only are +estimated as having “probably returned to criminal practices and +contact.” + +Elmira is at present the most promising direction in which we can turn for +light on the treatment of the criminal. Its wholesome and improving +discipline stands in favourable contrast to the lax indulgence and +shameful neglect of the criminal which coexist generally in the United +States. The system is not perfect, and it has been unfavourably reported +on by some observers. It is undoubtedly a defect that the prisoner must be +released, whatever his condition, at the expiring of his legal maximum +sentence; this is, however, an inevitable compromise. Notwithstanding all +defects, Elmira is full of encouragement, for it shows us a community +awakening to an active sense of its duties, so long forgotten, towards +those weaker members who, if neglected, become so dangerous to themselves +and to others. “It is an interesting sight,” remarks Dr. Wey, “when the +school is in session, to see a group of men, felons every one, gathered +about an instructor, intently listening as he makes clear some step in the +work in hand not fully or clearly understood, going through the various +processes, one by one, and explaining until the dullest mind can +comprehend. It is not expected that, with the comparatively limited time +for instruction, these men will become skilled mechanics. But rather the +idea has been to train the hand and eye, and teach the use of tools, to +awaken an ambition to pursue a lawful calling, and appreciate the value of +a practical knowledge of a trade, so that when the time shall come that +they pass beyond the prison doors, and again come into contact with +society, they will not be handicapped by the same conditions that formerly +operated to their detriment; but with increased resources of mind and body +will be enabled to occupy a higher and more self-respecting place.”[110] +The example of Elmira is spreading in America; in Ohio, for instance, +youthful criminals are being brought up on the broad basis of manual +training, and among the branches of industry taught are farming, +fruit-growing, carpentry, shoemaking, painting, tailoring, baking, +laundring, housework, vocal and band music, telegraphy and printing. On +the continent of Europe--especially, perhaps, in Germany--the system is +beginning to attract attention; and while it would be too sanguine to +conclude that Elmira has solved the question of the treatment of the +criminal, there can be no doubt as to the value of its contribution to +this difficult problem.[111] + +It can scarcely be necessary to say that in any effectual treatment +flogging can have no part. It would not have been necessary to say a word +on this point if within very recent times an English Parliament had not +been found so lamentably ignorant of historic evolution in this matter, of +the results of experience, and of rational principles, as to pass a +Corporal Punishment Bill. The objections to flogging are by no means of a +sentimental character. We have seen that the instinctive criminal, +although often cowardly enough, is by no means peculiarly sensitive to +pain. Flogging is objectionable because it is ineffectual (as was shown +long since), and because it brutalises and degrades those on whom it is +inflicted, those who inflict it, and those who come within the radius of +its influence. These facts are well known to those who have more than a +superficial acquaintance with the insides of prisons, and should have been +ascertained by those individuals who presume to legislate, before they +voted in the face of reason and experience. To flog a man for whatever +offence, however brutal, is to sanction his brutality. Capital punishment, +which is brutal like flogging, is comparatively free from the brutalising +influence of flogging. The method of flogging is so obviously unfit to +humanise and socialise any human being, that the impulse to inflict it can +only spring from a relic of savagery of the same kind as that which +inspires the criminal, without his excuse of a morbid or defective +organisation. It can only be said in excuse of those who advocate it that +they have no experience in the matter. Those who have witnessed it have, +however, recorded their experiences. Thus, to mention one instance, Sir +Robert Rawlinson, after giving a vivid account of flogging as he has +himself seen and heard it, adds:--“I will strive in my mind to judge those +members of Parliament who now advocate the revival of corporal punishment +charitably, by considering that they have never seen it as I have feebly +attempted to describe it: the degraded man lashed to the triangles, the +white clean skin of an Englishman exposed to the cool morning air, to be +scored, cut up, and scarred into a pulpy, blood-smeared lump of living +human flesh. Take the vision away: it is too hideous even to remember.” +Even if there were less evidence as to the ineffectual character of +flogging as a deterrent, and to its bad influence on the _morale_ of a +prison, we cannot afford to flog any human being. It is well to meditate +on the words of Dostoieffsky, who was familiar with the various forms of +flogging, and has recorded his convictions in his _Recollections of the +Dead-House_. After giving his opinion that “the rods are the most terrible +punishment in use among us,” and speaking of the demoralising influence of +flogging on those who inflict it, he concludes:--“Let me add that the +possibility of such a licence acts contagiously on the whole of society: +such a power is seductive. A society which regards these things with an +indifferent eye is already infected to the bone. The right accorded to a +man to punish his fellows corporally is one of the sores of our society; +it is the surest method of annihilating the spirit of citizenship.” +Flogging has not yet reached among us the extension which it then had in +Russia and in Siberia, but its character and influence remain the same, +and the warning seems to be still needed. + +With the indeterminate sentence must always be associated conditional +liberation--_i.e._, liberation by ticket-of-leave or on parole, liable to +revocation in case of misbehaviour. It is not, however, necessary to +insist on this, as the principle has long been practically recognised in +England and elsewhere. It exists in Belgium, some of the American states, +Hungary, Saxony, Switzerland, the Grand Duchy of Baden, etc. + +A very desirable accompaniment to any system of dealing with criminals is +a sound system for their registration and recognition. The method +originated by M. Alphonse Bertillon is now adopted in France, Russia, +Japan, Spain, Italy, the Argentine Republic, and some parts of Germany, +and it is being adopted in several of the United States. By this method +the height, the length and width of head, the measurements of left foot, +of outstretched arms, of trunk when seated, of fourth finger of left hand, +of left arm, length of ear, colour of eyes, and any marks are recorded, +together with the photograph, profile and full face. The method of +classifying the photographs in its simplest form was thus generally +described by M. A. Bertillon a few years ago (_Revue Politique et +Littéraire_, 28 April 1883). Suppose we have 80,000 photographs. They are +first divided according to the sex, the men on one side, the women on the +other. These latter do not reach 20,000. The 60,000 men who remain are +divided into three classes according to height; the short numbering about +20,000, the middle-sized numbering about 20,000, and the tall 20,000. Each +of these divisions is divided into three series according to length of +head. These new divisions, to the number of nine, contain rather more than +6000 each. Each of these sub-divisions is then divided into three groups +according to length of foot, each group containing about 2000 photographs. +Each of these groups is again sub-divided into three, according to length +of outstretched arms (_grande envergure_). Each of these groups contains +about 600, and they are further sub-divided with reference to age, colour +of eyes, and length of middle finger. Thus by means of four new +anthropological characters (sex, height, age, and colour of eyes have long +been noted) 80,000 photos can be easily divided into groups of 50. The +measurements can be taken in two or three minutes, and require no special +intelligence. When an individual stands as regards height at the border of +two classes, he is put into both. + +Thrusting a man into prison, when everything is said, is a measure only to +be taken with the utmost circumspection, after consideration of the +individual’s antecedents, and a clear conception of the ends to be +attained by imprisoning him. To relegate almost indiscriminately to prison +the miscellaneous army that file through a police court is an ignorant and +dangerous policy; there is little hope of good result, and a considerable +chance of evil result. If the period is for a few weeks only no permanent +beneficial end can be anticipated, even under the best of conditions; +while during so short a period no useful work can be commenced, so that +there is a direct incitement to idleness. When the prison has been decided +on, the period of detention must be indefinite, according to the results +attained in the opinion of those competent officers specially appointed to +form such decisions, and the liberation will be conditional. + +It is a wholesome sign of progress that in so many European countries +substitutes for the prison, in the case of minor offenders (_i.e._, +occasional criminals), are being anxiously sought and gradually adopted. +One cannot avoid seeing how many individuals are unnecessarily condemned +even to penal servitude. In our convict prisons there exists a very +excellent plan, entirely in accordance with rational principles, of +forming what is called a “Star” class of convicts--that is, a “special +class of those not versed in crime.” The authorities “cannot speak too +highly of the general tone and behaviour” of these men, their “decidedly +good disposition,” “keen anxiety to gain a knowledge of some sort of +trade,” sense of “the moral degradation in which they have placed +themselves,” etc. Their industry and freedom from prison offences are so +marked, “and the special reports on the subject have been so uniformly to +the same effect, that it is no longer necessary to call for such reports.” +This is all very gratifying, but it is not at all clear that these men +should have been convicts at all. There are other and more satisfactory +methods of dealing with such persons. + +It is not possible here to do more than touch slightly on the various +methods of dealing with occasional criminals. The one that approaches most +nearly to imprisonment is the method of pronouncing suspended sentences of +imprisonment to hang over the inculpated individual during a limited +period, at the end of which period, if his behaviour is good, the sentence +lapses. Imprisonment is thus, as Mr. Tallack remarks, commuted into +liability to imprisonment. This plan, applied to minor offences, was +adopted in Belgium in 1888, and is in use in some of the United States. In +England the First Offenders’ Act enables the magistrate to accept the +prisoner’s own recognisances to come up for judgment if called upon, but +the law does not seem to be applied so frequently as is desirable. The old +English system of recognisances, in which the guilty party deposits a sum +of money, is an excellent guarantee to society against his recidivism, and +is deserving of extension to all those cases to which it may prove +adapted. This plan has been adopted in the United States and in Denmark. A +very large proportion of small offenders can be dealt with adequately by +means of a fine. This should not be of too trifling a character when the +offence has been frequently repeated, and the means of the offender are +ample. Nor does it appear desirable that the offender should be allowed at +will to choose between fine and imprisonment. The notion of reparation +should be combined with the fine when possible, the offender, as Garofalo +proposes, paying an indemnity to the injured person, and a fine to the +community. With our abstract and impersonal method of dealing with crime, +we are much too apt to forget the recompense that is due to the injured +person. Féré has suggested that the State ought to undertake this +reparation; the community, he argues, has failed in its duty of protecting +one of its members, and it ought therefore to repair the injury which it +has not known how to prevent. Crime being largely the result of social +conditions, the damage it causes should be supported socially by the +society which generated the individual. A more practical first step, +however, seems to be a recognition that the criminal should be bound to +repair the damage he had caused. This reparation should be on a very +liberal scale, and with due regard to the anxiety or suffering inflicted +on the injured party. When the offender is not in a position to pay money, +there should, as Prins points out (and Sir Thomas More long before him), +be suitable provision to enable him to give so many days of his labour to +work out his penalty and reparation. In several European countries +imprisonment for mendicity, vagabondage, and other minor offences, has +been abolished, and compulsory work substituted: this is a reasonable +change. + +In the slightest cases of all, every end of social protection should be +attained by a formal “caution.” The publicity which this involves is +itself, under modern conditions of life, a sufficient safeguard. + +The special and very numerous class of habitual drunkards must be dealt +with by special methods. The method, if method it can be called, of +treating such cases by a few days’ imprisonment is glaringly ineffective. +It is a waste of public time and money, as well as a danger to the +individual himself and to society. Habitual inebriates can only be dealt +with fairly when they are recognised as diseased persons, to be treated on +rational principles, and to be saved, whether they will or not, from doing +injury to society and to themselves. It is incomprehensible that in so +drunken a country as England this question should not before now have had +serious attention, instead of being left to voluntary agency. To leave +habitual alcoholism and its results to voluntary agency is as reasonable +as it would be to leave the care and control of the insane to voluntary +agency. The case for the control and treatment of the inebriate is, +indeed, considerably stronger than that for controlling the insane. + +To sum up briefly the points in the treatment of the criminal which have +been reviewed in this chapter:-- + +Capital punishment is disappearing. There is, however, no reason to hasten +unduly its complete extinction, because lifelong imprisonment, under +existing conditions, is frequently less humane, and is not of greater +value for purposes of social protection. + +The prison needs to be made a far more active and thorough instrument of +social reformation than it is at present. Great circumspection must be +shown in selecting the individual whom it is desirable to send to prison, +but when selected he must be retained until there is reasonable +presumption that he will no longer be dangerous to society. In place of +mere routine and surveillance, he must be subjected to intelligent and +energetic treatment. While he should usually be guarded from contact with +his fellow-prisoners, it is desirable, with due restrictions, to promote +his intercourse with selected persons of the outside world. His +conditional liberation should be delayed until he can be placed in some +situation which will enable him to earn his own living. The plan of fixing +beforehand the period of the prisoner’s detention appears to have nothing +to recommend it, and should be entirely abolished. + +In dealing with occasional criminals whom it is not necessary or desirable +to put into prison, liability to imprisonment should be substituted. The +system of recognisances and of fines to the community, together with +reparation to the injured individual, should be developed and extended to +all cases to which it may suitably be applied. When the offender is unable +to pay a pecuniary fine, he should not be imprisoned, but compelled to +give his work. + +The class of habitual drunkards requires special and compulsory treatment +in special asylums. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +CONCLUSIONS. + + +We have now seen, in its main outlines, the present condition of this +question of the nature and treatment of the criminal. We have seen that +criminality is a natural phenomenon, to be studied gravely and carefully +according to natural methods; and that by natural and reasonable methods +alone can the problem of its elimination be faced with any chance of +success. + +A simple and obvious conclusion it seems. Yet it is a conclusion not even +yet generally accepted, and which is only beginning to find expression in +our social life. It is still quite usual to find that crime is regarded as +an abstract matter, not to be treated seriously unless the criminal +himself is ignored. On the other hand, when the criminal comes in for +discussion it is merely as a subject for sensational excitement, or +unwholesome curiosity, as a creature to be vituperated or glorified +without measure. + +The criminal has always been the hero, almost the saint, of the +uncultured. That attitude of unbounded reverence for the lunatic, as for +an inspired being, and unquestioning submission to his wildest acts which +to-day can scarcely be found in Europe outside Turkey, has by no means +died out where the criminal is concerned, even in the most civilised +country. The same reverence or amazement that the educated feel for the +man of genius, the uneducated feel for the criminal. + +The Romans gave the name of Hercules to great criminals after death, and +dedicated a distinct cult to them. If we go back to a still more primitive +phase of life as preserved in folk-lore, and still to some extent +perpetuated, we find that all that belongs to an executed criminal brings +luck. A finger or other small bone kept in the purse will preserve it from +ever being empty. It also keeps away vermin, and protects a thief from his +victim. Buried beneath the threshold it brings perpetual blessing, and to +have a thief’s thumb among his goods is an excellent thing for a +shopkeeper. The people came for the Marquise de Brinvilliers’s bones the +day after her execution; they regarded her as a kind of saint, says Mme. +de Sevigné. When at Breslau the old Rabenstein (the gallows) was broken +down, a great trade was done by the workmen in the bones found beneath. +Precious above all is the blood of a criminal; even a few drops on a rag +are most costly. Such blood, when drunk, heals fevers and other diseases, +just as the blood of gladiators was among the old Romans a cure for +epilepsy. It must be drunk fresh, if possible warm. Bread dipped in this +blood and eaten is good against the gout. The halter with which a criminal +has been hanged has much power and brings luck. When it is struck three +times on the threshold, the house is preserved from lightning. The same +put into a beer cask with a criminal’s thumb has an excellent influence on +the beer. In Franconia the fat of criminals is sometimes inquired for at +the druggist’s, and a substance, so called, is handed over. When in +Prussia executions took place in public, there was always friction +between the armed guards and the crowd of women, who at all costs pressed +forward with spoons, cups, and dishes to catch some of the blood. At the +execution of a murderer at Hanau in 1861, several men leapt on to the +scaffold and drank the steaming blood. At the execution of two murderers +in Berlin in 1864, the executioner’s assistants dipped numbers of white +handkerchiefs in the blood, and received two thalers for each. The +bystanders even call upon the criminal for his most powerful intercession +in Heaven. According to Pitré, there is still in Sicily a fetichistic +adoration for the souls of the beheaded. The criminal is a person endowed +with divine force, to be treated with awe and reverence, and whose blood +and flesh have something of the old sacramental power of infusing the +divine one’s energy into the body of him who eats of it.[112] + +[Illustration: Lacenaire.] + +In a less crude form, and among persons who lay claim to a somewhat higher +degree of culture, the same veneration has long existed and still exists. +Appert, writing immediately after the execution of Lacenaire at Paris, +says:--“His portraits were displayed on quays and boulevards. From all +sides exquisite meats and delicate wines reached his cell, while, two +steps away, miserable creatures driven to crime by hunger ate the black +and hard bread of the gaol. Every day some man of letters visited him, +carefully noting his sarcasms, his phrases composed in drunkenness or +studiously calculated for effect; women, young, beautiful, and elegantly +attired, solicited the honour of being presented to him, and were in +despair at his refusal; a noble countess, the mother of a family, +addressed verses to him, and drew upon herself a reply at which no doubt +she blushed. He himself mocked at the infatuation he excited. ‘They come +to me,’ he said, ‘as they would ask a ticket from M. Geoffroy +Saint-Hilaire to see the elephants’ den.’” When Cartouche was in prison he +was visited by many distinguished ladies and overwhelmed by their +attentions. The Abbé Crozes tells us that Tropmann, the brutal murderer, +when in prison received a great number of letters from ladies, full of +anxiety in regard to his spiritual welfare, and asking for the most minute +details concerning him. Some of these letters were reproduced in the +_Figaro_. I have not seen them, but Dr. Corre says: “Their perusal +stupefies one; they witness, among women who have been well brought up, to +an ill-defined obsession, of the nature of which they are even themselves +unaware, and which perhaps had its origin in an unavowable sentiment of +love, born of mystery and the unknown.” It is not only women in whom this +ancient worship of the criminal still survives. In a recent newspaper I +read concerning a murderer: “One of the saddest sights we have ever +witnessed was the prison van going along Waterloo Place at midnight under +the beautiful moonlight with a great crowd running after it cheering +loudly the poor wretch within--cheering that never ceased till the van +disappeared inside the prison gate. The crowd was composed chiefly of +young men, many of them well dressed, and not a few accompanied by their +sweethearts. The scene suggested a convoy by the students of a favourite +singer rather than that by the youth of even the lowest class in Edinburgh +of a brutal murderer of a harmless English gentleman.” And, again, in +another newspaper: “On Monday many visitors were in Seaham for Bank +Holiday and the flower show. Those who visited the cavern where the girl +is supposed to have been murdered were ten times more numerous than those +who went to the flower show. Nearly all were strangers to the town, and +had journeyed thither for the express purpose of viewing the scene of the +tragedy. Many took a memento of some sort, either a chipping of rock, a +pebble, or a stone from the cave. Some went so far as to take water from +the pool where deceased was found, away with them in bottles.” + +It is well known that when a woman has murdered her husband it is by no +means unusual for a number of letters to be sent to her, before the issue +of the trial is known, containing offers of marriage. + +It is not possible to regard the criminal as a hero or a saint after we +have once seriously begun to study his nature. He is simply a feeble or +distorted person to whom it has chanced--most often, perhaps, from lack of +human help--to fall out of the social ranks. It is as unreasonable and as +inhuman for a whole nation to become excited over him, and to crave for +the minutest details concerning him, as we now deem it to expose the +miseries of any other abnormal person--man of genius or idiot, leper or +lunatic--to the general and unmerciful gaze. Not that any of these may +not be studied; they must be studied, but not delivered over to +unrestrained curiosities, sentimentalities, cruelties. No external force +can change this attitude; no censorship of newspapers will avail. Only the +slow influences of education, and a rational knowledge of what criminality +means, can effect a permanent change. But until this has been effected, +one of the most fertile sources of crime, what has been well called the +contagion of crime, will remain, as it is to-day, a danger in all +civilised countries, a danger which is suggesting heroic remedies. The +minute details of every horrible crime are to-day known at once by every +child in remotest villages. The recital of it stirs up all the morbid +sedimentary instincts in weak and ill-balanced natures; and whenever a +large community grows excited over a crime, that community becomes +directly responsible for a whole crop of crimes, more especially among +young persons and children.[113] + +We have, then, to reform our emotional attitude towards the criminal. On +the other hand, we have yet something to do in reforming our rational +attitude towards crime. “There are no crimes; there are only criminals.” +That saying of Lacassagne’s indicates the direction in which practical +changes must develop. “All progress in penal jurisprudence,” as Salillas +well says, “lies in giving consideration to the man.” The question of +legal methods, criteria, and tribunals is one of considerable importance +from this point of view, and it is one to which sufficient attention has +not yet been given. It is unfortunate that, in this country at all events, +there seems to be a tendency to antagonism or divergence between, on the +one hand, the medical and scientific side and, on the other, the judicial +and executive side in the treatment of the criminal.[114] Whether this +divergence is due chiefly to the lawyers or to the doctors is not quite +clear, but it is essential that it should come to an end. Both lawyers and +doctors exist for the sake of society, and are the servants of society; +society, in its own interests, must see to it that they agree quickly. But +so long as society allows antiquated laws and methods to prevail, there +must be disagreement--disagreement which is disastrous to social +interests. We need, before everything else, an enlightened public opinion. + +A question which is constantly arising, and constantly leading to direct +divergence between the exponents of science and the exponents of law, is +the question of insanity. Under existing conditions it is frequently a +matter of some moment whether a criminal is insane or not. Now whether a +man is insane or not is largely a matter of definition. Even with the best +definition we cannot always be certain whether a given person comes within +the definition, but it is still possible to have a bad definition and a +good definition. The definition which lawyers in England are compelled to +accept is of the former character. The ruling still relied on is that of +the judges in the MacNaghten case, many years ago: “That to establish a +defence on the ground of insanity, it must be clearly proved that at the +time of committing the act the accused was labouring under such a defect +of reason from disease of the mind as not to know the nature and quality +of the act he was doing, or if he did know it, that he did not know he was +doing what was wrong.” That this metaphysical and unpractical test will +not do has been clearly recognised by some of the most eminent lawyers, +who are quite in agreement with medical men. “The test of insanity which +commends itself to medical men,” says Sir J. Crichton-Browne, “was never +more clearly and succinctly expressed than by Lord Bramwell when in the +Dove case he asked, ‘Could he help it?’ Could he help it? That is the real +practical question at issue in any case in which the defence of insanity +is set up.”[115] It should be added that Lord Bramwell has not always been +able to maintain this position. “It ought to be the law of England,” says +Mr. Justice Stephen, a very great authority, “that no act is a crime if +the person who does it is at the time when it is done prevented by +defective mental power, or by any disease affecting his mind, from +controlling his conduct, unless the absence of the power of self-control +has been produced by his own default.” A reasonable doctrine to lay down, +no doubt, and one which medical men generally would accept; but one asks +oneself at once: How many persons guilty of serious crimes--the only class +in regard to whom the question is of practical importance--are to be +counted sane? + +The point on which we must fix our attention, however, is that it should +make so much difference whether a criminal is insane or not. Our law is +still in so semi-barbaric a condition that the grave interests of society +and of the individual are made to hinge on a problem which must often be +insoluble. Practically it cannot make the slightest difference whether the +criminal is sane or insane. Sane or insane, he is still noxious to +society, and society must be protected from him. Sane or insane, it is +still our duty and our interest to treat him humanely, and to use all +means in our power to render him capable of living a social life. Under +any system, at once fairly humane and fairly rational, the question of +insanity, while still of interest, can make little practical difference, +either to society or to the criminal. It is unreasonable and anti-social +to speak of insanity as a “defence.” It is an explanation, but, from the +social point of view, it is not a defence. Suppose we accept the +definition of insanity which, as we have seen, is now widely accepted by +medical men and favoured by many eminent lawyers, that insanity is a loss +of self-control, the giving way to an irresistible impulse. It cannot be +unknown to any one that self-control may be educated, that it may be +weakened or strengthened by the circumstances of life. If we define +insanity as a loss of self-control and accept that as a “defence,” we are +directly encouraging every form of vice and crime, because we are removing +the strongest influence in the formation of self-control. When a “defence” +of kleptomania was brought before an English judge in a case of theft he +is said to have observed: “Yes, that is what I am sent here to cure.” We +need not hesitate to accept this conception of the function of the court, +provided always that the treatment is scientific, effectual, and humane. + +The fact that to-day it is not so, and that lawyers and doctors are +helpless to make it so, is a glaring proof of the necessity which exists +for society, in its own interests and in those of its weaker members, to +take intelligent cognisance of these matters, and to pave the way for +reasonable action. In the first chapter of this book I noted, without +calling any special attention to it, the curiously divergent way in which +somewhat similar cases were treated. One girl was treated kindly and sent +to a clergyman’s house: she “recovered.” Little Marie Schneider was sent +to prison for eight years, the years during which she will develop into a +woman. What will she be fit for when she comes out at the age of twenty? +She may come out a human tigress, or merely the crushed and helpless +product of prison routine. In either case what intelligent principle +guided the society that condemned her to spend those eight years in +prison? The lad who killed his little sister was sent to penal servitude +for ten years. What will he be good for when he comes out? “In any case,” +as Dr. Savage remarks, “the boy is pretty certain to end his days either +as a lunatic or a confirmed criminal, and I fancy the best course has been +taken to make him the latter. So society will suffer the more, and the boy +himself will be none the better.” + +These problems are unknown to the law, but they are beginning to stir +among the community. A girl of twelve not long since murdered a child of +four, as she herself subsequently confessed, in much the same manner as +Marie Schneider murdered Margarete Dietrich. The jury acquitted her. They +acted in defiance of the evidence and of the law. It is clear that what +they said to themselves was this: The law will send this girl to prison +for some ten or fifteen years. We do not believe in the advantage of that, +and we prefer to deliver her from the law altogether. They were, as the +judge said, a very merciful jury. But it is not by shuffling evasions of +law that civilisation progresses. We need just and reasonable laws, not +merciful juries. It is not to the advantage of society that young +murderesses should wander at large, though it may very possibly be better +than throwing them into the prison as at present constituted. The +“merciful” jury, as in the south of Italy, becomes the hysterical and too +often venial jury. We cannot be too grateful for the courage and honesty +with which, as a rule, English juries and judges fulfil their functions; +it is to this adherence to law that many intelligent foreign observers +attribute the fact that criminality in England is in some respects less +serious than one might be led to expect. If, however, this attitude is to +be maintained, and we are to avoid the dangers of lying and cowardly +verdicts, we must see to it that our law keeps pace with our knowledge and +with our methods of social progress. + +The institution of the jury is well rooted in England, and on the whole +very efficient. There is not likely to be any agitation for some time to +come for its abolition, as there has been in Italy and France and +Switzerland. But there is at all events one modification in our criminal +courts which is urgently required. It is entirely opposed to the interests +of justice, and therefore of society, that the scientific conclusions in a +case should be thrust into a partisan position. Experts will often differ +as lawyers often differ, but the lawyer is not more competent to decide on +the science of the expert than the expert is competent to decide on the +law of the lawyer. It is not for the interests of justice that one expert, +representing perhaps only his own opinion, should weigh against another +representing perhaps the general body of scientific opinion on that +subject. It is not calculated for the ends of justice that the judge, +however quick and intelligent, should have to pronounce on matters +concerning which he can only speak as a layman, and necessarily falls into +frequent errors of judgment. Special points involving special knowledge or +skill must be submitted to a commission of experts, and the verdicts of +the commission on these special points must be accepted by the court, +though subject to an appeal to a supreme medico-legal tribunal. Some such +method as this is now being widely demanded by intelligent opinion in the +interests of justice. At the International Congress on Forensic Medicine, +held in Paris in 1889, this tendency came out very clearly, and was +formulated in the following proposition which the Congress adopted:--“To +guarantee the interests of society and of the accused in all medico-legal +investigations, at least two experts shall be employed. These shall be +appointed by the judge.” It is to be hoped, in the interests of justice, +that the pressure of public opinion will hasten the adoption of this +reasonable and moderate reform in criminal procedure. + +Our courts of justice are still pervaded by the barbaric notion of the +duel. We arrange a brilliant tournament, and are interested not so much in +the investigation of truth as in the question of who will “win.” We cannot +hope for any immediate radical change in this method, but it is our duty +to do all that we can to strengthen those elements in our courts which +are concerned, not with the gaining of a cause, but with the investigation +of truth. This and all other reforms in our methods of dealing with the +criminal, as I have already pointed out, and would again insist, cannot be +attained by a mere administrative _fiat_; nor is it desirable that they +should be. Before any reform can be safely embodied in the law it must +first be embodied in the popular consciousness. We need here, as in so +many other fields of our social life, a strong body of intelligent and +educated opinion. This must accompany that revival, under the inspiration +of the methods of natural science, of that science of jurisprudence which +is at present the most stationary and scholastic of all the sciences. + +These problems are every day becoming more pressing. The level of +criminality, it is well known, is rising, and has been rising during the +whole of the present century, throughout the civilised world. In France, +in Germany, in Italy, in Belgium, in Spain, in the United States, the tide +of criminality is becoming higher steadily and rapidly. In France it has +risen several hundred per cent.; so also for several kinds of serious +crime in many parts of Germany; in Spain the number of persons sent to +perpetual imprisonment nearly doubled between 1870 and 1883; in the United +States the criminal population has increased since the war, relatively to +the population, by one-third. There is, no doubt, room for fallacy in many +of these statistics; various circumstances serve to modify such figures--a +greater or less intolerance of crime, more or less success in capturing +criminals, and variations in the methods of dealing with them. On the +whole, however, there seems to be a general agreement that the increase is +real. + +Insular Great Britain alone appears to be relatively unsubmerged by the +rising tide of criminality; but even here there is a real increase, in +proportion to the population, in the more serious kinds of crime. Crimes +of passion are rarer among the Anglo-Saxon race in England, Scotland, and +America than anywhere else; but crimes of interest are proportionately +more common than elsewhere. The decrease is in minor offences, and is due +in large measure, no doubt, to reasons connected with the police. The +anomaly of the comparative freedom of Great Britain from crime has been +explained by foreign observers in several ways--by the former frequency of +hanging and of transportation in England, thus eliminating a large number +of criminals,[116] and by the firmness with which sentences are executed. +It is probable that the great stream of emigration from Great Britain, +carrying away much of the finest, but also much of the most turbulent +elements (the two are often connected), has had a very marked influence in +this respect. + +Criminality, like insanity, waits upon civilisation. Among primitive races +insanity is rare; criminality, in the true sense, is also rare. +Conservatism and the rigid cult of custom form as distinct a barrier +against crime as they do against progressive civilisation. As the methods +of enlarging and multiplying the uses of our lives increase, so do the +abuses of these methods. In an epoch of stress, and of much change and +readjustment in the social surroundings and relations of individuals, +ill-balanced natures become more frequent, and the anti-social and +unlawful instincts are more often called out than in a stagnant society. +The criminality of the Irish in England is far greater than that of the +Irish at home, and it is a significant fact that while the Americans are +more criminal than the English, the criminality of the English-born in the +United States is more than double that of the native American whites. Like +insanity,[117] criminality flourishes among migrants, and our civilisation +is bringing us all more or less into the position of migrants. + +But the problem of criminality is not thereby rendered hopeless. Rather it +is shown to be largely a social fact, and social facts are precisely the +order of facts most under our control. The problem of criminality is not +an isolated one that can be dealt with by fixing our attention on that and +that alone. It is a problem that on closer view is found to merge itself +very largely into all those problems of our social life that are now +pressing for solution, and in settling them we shall to a great extent +settle it. The rising flood of criminality is not an argument for +pessimism or despair. It is merely an additional spur to that great task +of social organisation to which during the coming century we are called. + +It is useless, or worse than useless, to occupy ourselves with methods for +improving the treatment of criminals, so long as the conditions of life +render the prison a welcome and desired shelter. So long as we foster the +growth of the reckless classes we foster the growth of criminality. So +long as there are a large body of women in the East of London, and in +other large centres, who are prepared to say: “It’s Jack the Ripper or the +bridge with me. What’s the odds?”[118] there will be a still larger number +of persons who will willingly accept the risks of prison. “What’s the +odds?” Liberty is dear to every man who is fed and clothed and housed, and +he will not usually enter a career of crime unless he has carefully +calculated the risks of losing his liberty and found them small; but food +and shelter are even more precious than liberty, and these may be secured +in a prison. As things are, the asylum and the workhouse, against which +there is a deep prejudice, ingrained and irrational, would have a greater +deterring influence than the prison. There are every morning at Paris +50,000 persons who do not know how they will eat or where they will +sleep.[119] It is the same in every great city; for such the prison can be +nothing but a home. It is well known that the lot of the convict, +miserable as it is, with its dull routine and perpetual surveillance, is +yet easier, less laborious, and far more healthy than that to which +thousands of honest working men are condemned throughout Great Britain. +The fate reserved for a French convict is one that might well be the +reward of honesty. He is sent to New Caledonia, to marry, to settle, +perhaps to become rich. “I do not know,” an ex-deputy, sent out to report +on the condition of the convicts, is said to have declared, “any +struggling peasant or small proprietor in France who would not gladly +exchange his lot for that of a convict of the first class in New +Caledonia.” “The working classes,” as Professor Prins, one of the most +able and thoughtful students of this subject, remarks, “badly housed, +badly nourished, vegetate at the mercy of economic crises.[120] The worker +is always on the borders of vagabondage; the vagabond is always on the +borders of crime. The entire working classes are thus exposed in the first +line, and whether it is a question of disease or of crime, it is they who +succumb first.”[121] Crime would be much commoner than it is if it were +not for the communistic practice of mutual helpfulness which rules so +largely among the poorest classes, and mitigates the stress of misery. All +the more thoughtful students of the criminal, among whom Ferri in this +respect stands first, have seen the direct bearing on criminality of what +Colajanni has called Social Hygiene. We may neglect the problems of social +organisation, but we do so at our peril. + +It was at one time thought that the great panacea for the prevention of +crime was education. Undoubtedly education has an important bearing on +criminality, but we now know that the mere intellectual rudiments of +education have very little influence indeed in preventing crime, though +they may have a distinct influence in modifying its forms. Such education +merely puts a weapon into the hands of the anti-social man. The only +education that can avail to prevent crime in any substantial degree must +be education in the true sense, an education that is as much physical and +moral as intellectual, an education that enables him who has it to play a +fair part in social life. The proportion of criminals with some +intellectual education is now becoming very large; the proportion of +criminals who are acquainted with any trade still remains very small; the +proportion of criminals engaged in their trade at the time of the crime is +smaller still. We seem to be approaching a point at which it will become +obvious that every citizen must be educated to perform some useful social +function. In the interests of society he must be enabled to earn his +living by that function. If we close the social ranks against him he will +enter the anti-social ranks, and the more educated he is the more +dangerous he will then become. + +All education must include provision for the detection and special +treatment of abnormal children. We cannot catch our criminals too young. +Taverni has found that criminals in childhood are marked especially by +their resistance to educative influences. It is our duty and our interest +to detect such refractory and abnormal children at the earliest period, to +examine them carefully, and to ensure that each shall have the treatment +best adapted to him. It is much easier, and much cheaper, to do that, than +to wait until he has brought ruin on himself and shame on his friends. +This is beginning to be recognised and acted upon in those countries that +are most alive to the meaning of education; in Sweden, for instance, there +is a careful medical supervision of schools, by medical officers who are +not subordinate to the teachers, although this supervision is confined to +the physical condition and capacities of the child. It is indispensable, +if we are to deal effectually with the criminal, that we should be able +to refer to the record of his physical, mental, and moral dispositions +during childhood. In England recently a committee, consisting of the most +eminent medical men specially qualified for the task, was appointed to +examine into the condition of children in primary schools. This committee, +owing chiefly to the enthusiasm and labour of Dr. Francis Warner, +accomplished much valuable work, but the London School Board refused to +allow any access to its schools. The London School Board consists, one may +suppose, of intelligent persons, genuinely interested in education, and +representing the sense of the community, yet they refused to consider one +of the most serious problems that the educator has to face. So true it is +that every society has only the criminals that it deserves. + +While a wise modification of the educative influences is here of the +greatest importance, we must not forget that to a very large extent the +child is moulded before birth. There is no invariable fatalism in the +influences that work before birth, but it must always make a very great +difference whether a man is well born and starts happily, or whether he is +heavily handicapped at the very outset of the race of life; whether a man +is born free from vices of nature, or buys freedom, if at all, at a great +price. There is evidence to show how much of the welfare of the child +depends on the general physical and emotional health of the parents, and +that the child’s fate may be determined by some physical weakness, some +emotional trouble at conception or during pregnancy. No legislation can +step in here, save at the most very indirectly. We can, however, quicken +the social and individual conscience. The making of children is the +highest of all human functions, and that which carries the most widespread +and incalculable consequences. It is well to remember that every falling +away from health, every new strain and stress, in man or woman, may lay an +additional burden on a man or woman yet unborn, and perhaps wreck a life +or a succession of lives. + +This is not the place to develop these various consequences which flow +from our consideration of the nature and treatment of the criminal. It +seemed well, however, to indicate them, if only to show how large a +problem is this of criminality. Perhaps every social problem, when we +begin to look into it and to turn it round and to analyse it, will be +found not to stand alone, but to be made up of fibres that extend to every +part of our social life. + + + + +APPENDIX A. + +_Explanation of Plates._ + + +FRONTISPIECE. + +Composite photograph of twenty criminals--“dullards”--in the Elmira +Reformatory. It may be compared with Plates XIV. and XV. I am indebted to +the kindness of Dr. Hamilton Wey for these photographs. + + +PLATE I. + +1. S. E., age 32. Life sentence. Third time a convict, and he says “all +for the same man.” His story is that he was flogged by the mate of his +ship at Callao, that he jumped with the mate into the water, and after a +chase on shore he stabbed him. He speaks of the mate as his lifelong +enemy. Height 6ft. 0¼ in. without boots. Very powerful. A most determined +villainous expression, but a massive forehead. Small compressed mouth. +Attempted suicide at Millbank. Lost left arm at Woking from disease of +elbow joint. + +2. T. W., murderer. + +3. G. W., gardener, age 86; seven years for uttering counterfeit coin. +Three previous short sentences. + +4. J. C., farm labourer, from Nottingham, age 62; ten years’ sentence; +petty thefts many times. Fourth time a convict. + +5. A. J., from Paisley, age 50; cattle stealing; two years a soldier; +“could not learn the bugle-calls or anything.” Weak-minded; most of life +in prison; three terms of penal servitude; eleven shorter sentences. + +6. P. J., charcoal burner and collier, from Hereford, age 36; unlawfully +and maliciously wounding; “low type of intellect.” Very troublesome at +Chatham, and among the weak-minded at Millbank. One previous sentence of +penal servitude. + + +PLATE II. + +1. T. C., chemist, from Portsea, age 21. Paid his addresses to girl whose +mother objected; attempted to murder latter by administering prussic acid. +Eight years’ penal servitude. Valvular disease of heart after rheumatic +fever. + +2. G. H., farm labourer, from Leeds, age 50; “very low type;” twenty years +for shooting wife. + +3. J. H., soldier and navvy, from Durham, age 60; conspiring to murder. + +4. J. C., from Liverpool, fifteen years for manslaughter. + +5. E. L., dock labourer, from Bristol. Life sentence for murdering wife’s +paramour; genitals undeveloped; fatty tumours on scapula. + +6. W. G. H., from Lincoln, age 12. Manslaughter; fifteen years. Second and +third toes webbed. + + +PLATE III. + +1. R. W., dock labourer, from Paisley, age 18. Assault and robbery; ten +years. Previous conviction for theft. + +2. E. S. J., farm labourer, age 38; seven years for horse-stealing and +other thefts; four previous convictions. + +3. W. W., stone-masons’ labourer, from Kirkdale, age 21; seven years and +flogged for robbery with violence. Three previous shorter sentences. + +4. G. W., puddler, from Salford, age 21; five years for wounding. + +5. W. S., cook and steward, from Liverpool; ten years for larceny; five +years previously for ditto. + +6. W. C., age 25. Robbery with violence; ten years. Two shorter sentences. + + +PLATE IV. + +1. J. J., hawker, from Hull; seven years for theft. + +2. J. M., age 28; eight years a tailor, “rest of life a thief.” Seven +years for larceny, housebreaking, and receiving. + +3. V. M., maker of pearl ornaments, from Birmingham, age 20. Thief +chiefly; twelve times in prison. + +4. J. W., collier, from Durham; seven years for felony; seven shorter +sentences previously. Right eye destroyed. + +5. W. T., farm labourer, from Hereford, age 21; ten years for receiving +stolen goods. + +6. N. K., collier, from Gloucester; seven years for receiving joint of a +sheep, stolen and cut up by another; previous conviction for stealing +fellow-labourer’s dinner. “Low type; history told as if it was all a +joke.” + + +PLATE V. + +1. J. H., from Chester, age 21; five years for burglary. In reformatory +and seven times in prison. “Very prominent forehead; small eyes nearly +concealed by upper lid.” + +2. J. C. E., age 25; seven years for housebreaking. “Low type.” + +3. S. P.. age 35; weaver, from Wakefield; ten years’ penal servitude for +felony; five years previously. + +4. J. P., costermonger; seven years; house and general thief. + +5. D. M., a Greek, age 16; letter sorter; five years for stealing parcels. +His father had been in penal servitude for stealing bonds. + +6. H. S., letter-sorter, age 21. Five years for stealing a letter. + + +PLATE VI. + +1. V. S., age 17; rape on girl of 13; “very low type.” + +2. W. W., age 45; coal miner and stoker, from Stafford; rape on child of +10. “Strong, villainous expression.” + +3. H. O., groom and jockey, from Leeds, age 57. Bestiality; fifteen years’ +penal servitude; conspiracy by servant girl, he says. Threatened to +destroy himself. “Eyes very close to the nose; small head; low type.” + +4. W. M., age 32, from Manchester; nine years a soldier, farm labourer +before and since; ten years for crime _contra naturam_. + +5. T. R., age 16; farm labourer, from Worcester; ten years for rape; +“monkey face.” + +6. W. B., age 23, from Manchester; height 5ft. 0½ in.; seven years for +arson; intellect feeble. + + +PLATE VII. + +_Relation of the age of Fathers in normal subjects, criminals, and the +insane (adapted from Marro)._ + + +-------------------------------------------------------------- + | |Normal.|Criminals.|Murderers.| Sexual | + | | | | |Offenders.| + |--------------------|-------|----------|----------|----------| + | | per | per | per | per | + | | cent. | cent. | cent. | cent. | + |Period of immaturity| 8.8 | 10.9 | 2.9 | 2.7 | + | " maturity | 66.1 | 56.7 | 44.1 | 66.6 | + | " decadence | 24.9 | 32.2 | 52.9 | 30.5 | + +-------------------------------------------------------------- + + +-----------------------------------------------+ + | |Thieves.|Sharpers.|Insane.| + | | | | | + |--------------------|--------|---------|-------| + | | per | per | per | + | | cent. | cent. | cent. | + |Period of immaturity| 15.5 | 2.8 | 17.0 | + | " maturity | 57.2 | 60.0 | 47.0 | + | " decadence | 27.1 | 37.1 | 36.0 | + +-----------------------------------------------+ + + +PLATE VIII. + +Tattooed criminal from Lombroso’s _Uomo Delinquente_. A French sailor, a +deserter, previously condemned for an unknown crime. The various +inscriptions and designs bear witness to his vicious and criminal tastes. +The heart’s case, for instance, is common among pæderasts. + + +PLATE IX. + +The eight heads in this and the following Plate have been chosen, +intentionally, almost at random, in order to show the average types of +criminal with whom the London police at Scotland Yard have to deal. + +1. F. C., age 61. A well-known London burglar; tattooed. + +2. C. D., age 31. Housebreaker. “A dangerous character.” Many scars on +head, body, and limbs. + +3. H. A. G., age 36. “A very clever swindler,” “of gentlemanly appearance, +and good address.” Speaks French and German. + +4. W. A., age 42. “A desperate burglar, and will assuredly use firearms.” +A smith, native of Middlesex. Several scars. + + +PLATE X. + +1. J. C., age 32. Shoemaker by trade, native of London. “A daring burglar; +will probably use firearms.” Tattooed. + +2. M. A. L., age 28. Factory hand, born at Sheffield. “A dangerous thief,” +who has had eight years’ penal servitude for assault and robbery. + +3. W. K., age 40. “A dangerous thief, with several convictions.” + +4. R. W., age 23. Born at Hartlepool. “A dangerous man.” Larceny. + + +PLATE XI. + +The heads in this and the following Plate are chiefly Italian, and taken +from Lombroso’s _Uomo Delinquente_. + +1. Desroues, poisoner. + +2. Cartouche. + +3. B. S., Piedmontese forger. + +4. Incendiary (and cinæedus) of Pesaro, nicknamed “the woman.” + + +PLATE XII. ITALIAN BRIGANDS. + +1. A Calabrian brigand. + +2. Carbone, a brigand chief. + +3. A Basilicata brigand. + +4. Venafro di Caspoli, brigand. + + +PLATE XIII. FRENCH CRIMINALS (from Corre’s _Les Criminels_). + +1. Tropmann, an Alsatian mechanic, aged 19, who assassinated a family of +eight persons. + +2. Pranzini, thief, and murderer of three persons. + +3. Oillic, age 27, Breton sailor, leader in the murder of the officers of +the _Fœderis Arca_. Hair black, laughs continually, very energetic, very +intemperate “without ever losing his head.” + +4. Carbuccia, age 26, a Corsican, who co-operated very actively in the +same tragedy. Abandoned in childhood; very intelligent and very violent. +Intemperate; handwriting tremulous like that of an old man. + + +PLATE XIV. + +Composite photograph of eleven criminals undergoing physical training at +Elmira. + + +PLATE XV. + +Composite photograph of thirty-eight criminals undergoing physical +training at Elmira. + + + + +APPENDIX B. + +_The Congress of Criminal Anthropology at Paris._ + + +The second International Congress of Criminal Anthropology was held in +August 1889 at Paris, in the large amphitheatre of the Faculty of +Medicine. A very considerable audience assembled here during the week over +which the Congress extended. Many distinguished representatives of +science, law, medicine, and the administrative world came from very +various countries, and official representatives were present from France, +Italy, Russia, Holland, Belgium, the United States, Denmark, Sweden, +Roumania, Servia, Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Paraguay, and Hawaii. Great +Britain, it will be observed, was only conspicuous by its absence. Among +those who took part in the proceedings of the Congress may be mentioned M. +Thévenet, the Minister of Justice, Dr. Brouardel, the Dean of the Medical +Faculty of Paris, and President of the Congress, MM. Théophile Roussel, +Lombroso, Ferri, Garofalo, Moleschott, Lacassagne, Demange, Van Hamel, +Semal, Ladame, Benedikt, Tarde, Wilson, Tenchini, Motet, Manouvrier, +Alphonse Bertillon, Bournet, Féré, Coutagne, Letourneau, Mme. Clémence +Royer, Drill, Clark Bell, Magnan, Topinard, Delasiauve, and the General +Secretary of the Congress, Dr. Magitot. + +In his opening discourse Dr. Brouardel remarked that the Italian school +had the great merit of taking up again the study of a question with which +philosophy, law, and medicine have always been occupied. Every time in the +history of a country that philosophic studies have free expansion, the +desire to safeguard society, the spirit of toleration, the methods for +ameliorating the fate of the guilty, of protecting them from themselves, +and of taking them out of the environment which educates them to crime, +have been the object of the meditation and study of great thinkers; and +their conceptions have eventually conquered public opinion. It has been +the honour of the Italian school--in the land where Roman law, the +foundation of all law, was born--that it has again put into the crucible +this problem of criminality, and that it has proceeded to the analysis of +that problem by the only truly scientific method--by studying the +psychology of criminals, and their pathological abnormalities. It will be +its distinction to have declared against illusory enthusiasms, and to have +founded a science which will contribute to the more efficacious protection +of society. + +The first communication came from Lombroso, as the recognised chief of the +Italian school. He summarised what he believed to be the most important +abnormal physical characteristics found among criminals--the presence of +cranial and facial asymmetry, precocious synostosis, unusual frequency of +left-handedness, large orbits, prominence of zygoma, large median +occipital fossa, frequency of tattooing, etc. These characters, he +considered, were all due to pathological causes. The discussion was at +once commenced by M. Manouvrier. He began by declaring that he was by no +means an antagonist of the Italian school. He granted that it had been +proved that physical abnormalities are more common among criminals than +among the ordinary population, but he claimed due consideration for the +influence of environment; crime is a sociological matter much more than a +physiological matter. M. Dimitri Drill said that, strictly speaking, there +is no criminal type; there are, as Morel had shown, organic conditions of +defect and degeneration, but criminality remained above all a social +question. MM. Pugliese and Garofalo expressed very similar opinions. M. +Lacassagne pointed out that we too often forget the factor of misery in +the production of crime; he meant not merely social misery, but +physiological misery, of which the origin was intra-uterine. As regards +poverty, M. Garofalo could not share Lacassagne’s views; his +investigations had shown that the number of criminals furnished by the +middle classes is, proportionately, quite equal to that furnished by the +lower classes, while for some kinds of crime the upper classes gave a +higher figure than the lower. Mme. Clémence Royer called attention to the +importance of hybridism in the genesis of crime. The recrudescences of +criminality, she remarked, correspond to the great epochs of the mingling +of races. Benedikt spoke of the relation between insanity and crime; the +criminal is a diseased person, he held, or a lunatic, and we must consider +the molecular troubles of the cerebral substance as well as the external +physical signs. After M. Tarde, speaking as a _juge d’instruction_, had +admitted the existence both of the organic predispositions to crime, and +the influence of the social environment, M. Brouardel joined in the +discussion. Crime should not, he said, be regarded as the result of any +single isolated cause, physical, moral, or social, but of all those causes +at once. The diagnosis of the criminal must be subordinated to the same +rules as the diagnosis of a disease; that is to say, it is made up of +related and simultaneous conditions. A single sign is insufficient to +reveal the criminal, just as a single symptom will not prove typhoid +fever. Professor Ferri well summed up the morning’s discussion. Crime, he +admitted, is a very complex phenomenon; it is a sort of polyhedron, of +which every one sees a special side. All the points of view maintained +that day were, at the same time, true and incomplete. Lombroso had brought +to light the biological side of crime, but that was not the whole of it. +Drill, Dekteren, and Manouvrier had shown the social side; Pugliese the +legal side, which is a more special aspect of the social side. Tarde, the +sympathetic critic of criminal anthropology, had not left out of sight the +physiological side of crime. We must, like Moleschott and Brouardel, +proceed synthetically, for crime is at once a biological and a social +phenomenon. He recalled a saying of Lacassagne’s at the previous Congress, +that the criminal is a microbe which only flourishes in a suitable soil. +Without doubt it is the environment which makes the criminal; but, like +the cultivation medium, without the microbe it is powerless to germinate +crime. Both biological and social aspects are fundamental in criminality, +and they constitute the two essential data of criminal anthropology. + +Dr. Semal, Director of the Mons Lunatic Asylum, and the official delegate +of the Belgian Government, presided at the afternoon session, when various +communications of a somewhat miscellaneous character were brought forward. + +On the following morning Professor Van Hamel, of Amsterdam, presided, and +M. Manouvrier brought forward again the question of anatomical criminal +characteristics and their illusory character. M. Lombroso defended himself +with his usual energy and spirit, pointing out the distinction between the +instinctive criminal and the occasional criminal. He explained that he had +himself given so much attention to the biological factor in criminality, +although he was, above all, an alienist, because it had previously been +entirely neglected. He admitted that his conclusions had sometimes been +too rash, although founded on the observation of now nearly 27,000 +individuals by himself and others, but he had always been ready to give +up an indefensible position. The atavism of criminals, he now believed, +may largely be explained by morbid causes. The discussion was carried on +by other members, and was sufficient, in the opinion of M. Garofalo, to +show that the divergence of ideas was more apparent than real; those who +far off seem adversaries, are found on nearer view to be partisans. On his +proposition, it was decided by the Congress that it is desirable to +continue on the largest scale the comparative study of criminals and +normal persons, subjecting them to a severe and minute examination, in +order to ascertain the physical differences which separate them. On the +proposition of M. Lacassagne, it was unanimously agreed that access to +prisons ought to be made easier, and that the bodies of executed criminals +should be available for scientific study. + +At the afternoon session, presided over by Professor Ferri, Dr. Coutagne +read a paper on “The Influence of Professions on Criminality.” Mr. Wilson +followed on “The Statistics of Crime in the United States,” in which he +referred to the necessity of creating international criminal statistics, +permitting of the comparative study of crime among different nations. M. +Laschi brought forward an interesting communication on “Political Crime +from the point of view of Anthropology,” in which he spoke of the bearing +of race on politics, and also on genius; and M. Giampietro dealt with “The +Moral Responsibility of Deaf-mutes in relation to Legislation.” + +On Wednesday morning Baron Garofalo read an important paper on the +question whether, when an individual’s guilt has been recognised, the +class of criminals to which he belongs can be determined by criminal +anthropology. This question was discussed from, necessarily, a somewhat +legal point of view, with Garofalo’s customary ability and clearness. He +was not concerned, he said, with the recognition of the criminal, but with +his classification, and in criminal anthropology we must give the first +place to psychology. He insisted on the necessity for the careful +psychical examination of the criminal, although it is necessary also to +consider his physical nature; while sometimes even the character of the +crime is sufficient to class the criminal. Uniformity of punishment is a +manifest absurdity; and he referred to the progress already made in France +by the recognition of the gravity of incorrigible recidivism. The old +criminal law only recognised two terms, the _offence_ and the +_punishment_. The new criminology recognises three terms, the _crime_, the +_criminal_, and the _method of repression_. Criminal law, he concluded, +must not be treated as a detached and isolated science; it must be +subordinated to psychology and to anthropology, or it will be powerless to +interpret and to determine, in any enlightened legislation, the true +classification of criminals. M. Alimena, a young Italian lawyer, thought +that the considerations brought forward by Garofalo furnished presumptions +only, and not judicial certainties. After a lively episode between M. +Benedikt and M. Lombroso, M. Brouardel, bringing the discussion back to +the point, remarked that the problem proposed by Garofalo--the +classification of criminals--can only be resolved by the totality of the +evidence. The complete investigation of the criminal can alone enlighten +justice. The crime by itself is insufficient to class the criminal, just +as the most senseless act is not enough to characterise a lunatic. The +morning session was closed by some remarks from M. Herbette, the official +director of the _Administration Pénitentiaire_. The Administration, he +observed, were following the results of criminal anthropology with close +attention, ready to adopt all conclusions that were proved, as they had +already adopted some. While recommending zeal and confidence in the +pursuit of these studies, he urged that the conclusions should be as +mature and as assured as possible, or criminal anthropology would risk its +authority and _prestige_. + +At the afternoon session, presided over by Professor Ladame (Geneva), M. +Ferri read a paper on the determining conditions of crime--individual, +physical, and social--and their relative value. M. Ferri is one of the +most accomplished and philosophic advocates of the new criminal +anthropology, and his paper, and its subsequent eloquent elucidations, +were listened to with great attention. Crime, he said, is at once +biological and social. Out of 100 persons living in the same conditions of +misery and abandonment, 60 commit no crimes; of the other 40, 5 commit +suicide; 5 become insane, 5 are beggars, 25 commit crimes; therefore the +social environment is not the exclusive cause of crime. But, again, we +must not neglect the social environment, for, to mention one piece of +evidence only, the maximum of crimes against property is reached in +winter. And, again, the most delicate biological modifications must be +considered, for rapes and crimes of violence are most common when the +temperature is high, and climate and barometrical pressure play a certain +part. If the thermometer had marked ten degrees less, or the barometer a +few millimetres more, perhaps such and such a crime would not have been +committed. The conclusion is that, on the one hand, we must ameliorate +social conditions for the natural prevention of crime, and on the other +hand exercise measures of temporary or perpetual elimination of +individuals, according as the biological conditions in each case seem more +or less curable. M. Alimena attached great importance to education, +especially to its hereditary effects. The criminal ought not to be able to +say to his judge: “Why have you not made me better?” He agreed with the +words of Lacassagne at the former Congress at Rome: “Societies have the +criminals that they deserve.” M. Manouvrier considered that Ferri did not +attach enough importance to the social factor; no two persons lived in the +same social environment. This was also the opinion of M. Drill. M. Tarde +expounded his views as to the characteristics of criminals being due to +the professional exercise of crime. M. Féré would not believe in any +professional type until it had been established by precise measurements. +The discussion on the whole showed that, as M. Van Hamel said, society to +defend itself must have an eye on every side. + +On Thursday the members of the Congress visited Sainte-Anne, where M. +Magnan demonstrated the subject of degeneration. They also visited the +Prefecture of Police, where M. Alphonse Bertillon showed his +anthropometrical method of identifying criminals in action, and M. +Moleschott succeeded with little trouble in identifying a man who had +given a false name. + +On Friday morning M. Tarde presided, and M. Pugliese, of Trani (Italy), +read a report on the criminal trial from the sociological point of view. +The evidence which demonstrates the existence of a crime and of a criminal +can only be duly weighed by a magistrate possessing much technical +knowledge. It is not enough for him to be a judge or a jurist; he must be +well acquainted with anthropological and sociological science; he must +know the environment in which crime is produced, and the people who are +born to live and die in this environment. He advocated the establishment +by the State of a college for the education of magistrates. At present +there is great confusion, and the magistrate is called upon to decide +complex questions of which he is quite ignorant. The duty of the judge to +demand the decision of science with the power to tread it under foot was a +manifest contradiction. It was not reasonable that a medico-legal judgment +should be over-ridden by a jury, and it was time to reverse the ancient +maxim that the judge is the expert of experts. When it is a question of +legal medicine, the medico-legal expert must be the judge. There should be +a medico-legal commission, whose duty it would be not to express opinions, +but to give decisions. That is the only way to avoid many scandals. M. +Brouardel, from the medico-legal standpoint, said he was not able to +accept the present which Pugliese offered him. Every trial had issues +which were not medical, and here the medico-legal expert would be +incompetent. Apart from this, he would be cautious as to using +anthropological data at all. It was still premature, and to go too fast +was to risk compromising everything. M. Benedikt agreed with M. Brouardel, +and advocated the scientific education of lawyers, which M. Lacassagne +also considers desirable. + +The next paper was by MM. Taverni and Magnan on the childhood of +criminals, and the natural predisposition to crime. M. Taverni had made a +number of investigations on children in reformatories--a study which he +called pedagogic biology--and had traced backwards the childhood of +criminals, and forwards the career of unpromising children. The chief +indications he had found in the childhood of criminals were inaptitude to +education, resistance to family order, and the revolt against social +conventions. Among adult criminals one found in childhood the same +characters of inaptitude and resistance. For M. Magnan the child was often +already a complete criminal, as the result of physical and moral +degeneration, due to nervous, insane, or alcoholic heredity. He regarded +the matter as a purely clinical one (following Moreau, of Tours, and +Morel). He brought forward many interesting examples, and pointed out that +in all of them sexual aberration played a very prominent part. An +interesting discussion followed. MM. Motet, Dalifol, Roussel, and Herbette +regretted that the State did not undertake the care of children at an +earlier age, when there was greater hope of the favourable influence of +physical, moral, and intellectual education. M. Lombroso, while expressing +his great esteem for M. Magnan (the Charcot of alcoholism, as he called +him), was not able to agree with him. What he had himself said about +children was founded on the observations of Perez, Taine, and Spencer. +Moral sense was often lacking in the child. He was an embryonic criminal. +MM. Moleschott and Van Hamel spoke in defence of the child who is +unconscious. He was not chaste, because he had no ideas of modesty. He had +no respect for truth, and the destructive instinct is strong in him. M. +Moleschott referred to the anecdote in which Goethe recorded the delight +with which, as a child, he once produced a terrible carnage among the +crockery. But we must not confuse a phase of evolution with the conditions +of disease or criminality. M. Rollet, the advocate who pleads before the +tribunals at Paris the cause of all children who are arrested (about 20 to +30 boys and 8 to 10 girls every day), said that he always pleaded +irresponsibility, and demanded an acquittal. The child was then either +handed over to its parents, or to the philanthropic society of which Th. +Roussel is president. If the child appeared vicious, he demanded that he +should be sent to a reformatory until the age of 20. He judged by the +physiognomy and the history, but thought it would be a great advantage to +have the competent advice of a criminal anthropologist. This wish was +immediately satisfied. M. Manouvrier offered to come to the Palais de +Justice every day. Mme. Pigeon said that in her experience she had never +met a child of five or six, however perverted and vicious, who was +refractory to education. It was, however, a task requiring great care and +devotion. The regeneration of the child, M. Eschenauer said, could only be +by love. M. Roussel, who has devoted his life to the cause of the +disinherited children of society, spoke of the progress that had been +made, and said that the tendency was to enlarge more and more the sphere +of the State. + +At the afternoon session, presided over by M. Drill, M. Brouardel called +the attention of the Congress to troubles of development appearing at +puberty. He drew a vivid picture of lively and intelligent Paris _gamins_ +whose precocious development is arrested at puberty, both physically and +mentally. The sexual organs do not develop, hair does not appear on the +body. Instead of this, at 16 or 18 they become plump and feminine in +appearance and manners, and there is sexual impotence. Previously +brilliant at school, they now become lazy, and incapable of sustained +attention or effort. In later life they may become artists, poets, or +painters, if born in easy circumstances, but their work does not give +proof of the higher artistic qualities. Their devotion to those who +surround them is often of almost feminine tenderness. The chief factors in +producing this acquired degeneration are complex, such as overwork, +unhealthy dwellings, precocious sexual habits, and early alcoholism. M. +Herbette then described the efforts of the French Government in what he +described as moral orthopædics. They endeavoured to remove from the child +every idea of fatalism. M. Bérillon said he had been very successful in +treating vicious children by suggestion, and had succeeded in curing bad +sexual habits at one sitting. + +M. Tarde then gave a summary of his report on the old and the new +foundations of moral responsibility. In this interesting and ingenious +paper, of a somewhat metaphysical character, he tried to show how moral +responsibility harmonises at once with the human conscience and with +contemporary science. Responsibility rests on identity, and by identity he +meant individual identity and social identity. This responsibility rests +on the determination of our actions, and is only relative. Mme. Clémence +Royer replied from a strictly scientific standpoint. All our acts are +determined by our physical nature. M. Coutagne refused to enter the domain +of metaphysics. The question was a practical one, and every individual, +sane or insane, must be treated as responsible. M. Motet said the question +was a clinical one. If the individual is normal, his responsibility is +complete; if he is abnormal or degenerated, his responsibility is limited; +if he is insane, his responsibility is _nil_. M. Manouvrier would reject +metaphysics absolutely. M. Ferri said that we must not accept the +conceptions of merit and demerit. All men are responsible before society, +but society has no right to punish. It has only the right to protect +itself. M. Tarde, in a spirited speech, defended his position. He +protested against the confusion of the criminal and the insane. There is a +profound reason for the fibres of indignation and contempt that is rooted +in us, and as long as they persist we shall turn them against the criminal +who acts in accordance with his native and not morbid character. + +On Saturday morning Professor Lombroso presided. A proposition declaring +that it is desirable that every Government should adopt Bertillon’s +anthropometric method for the identification of recidivists was +unanimously adopted. M. Semal then read a paper on conditional liberation +and conditional detention. The beginnings of these have already appeared +in several countries, but to carry them on safely on a more extended scale +it is necessary to practise the most careful physical and psychical +examination of the prisoner. This would create, under the shield of +medical science, a clinical field of the bar. It would also necessitate +the spread of knowledge which is now lacking, and a re-organisation of the +administration and medical inspection of prisoners. M. Bertillon trusted +that anthropological considerations would not lead the prison +administration to neglect its duties of moral reformation. M. Benedikt +said that prison chaplains agreed with medical men in recognising the +incorrigibility of certain criminals. M. Drill thought that we must +clearly distinguish judgment from punishment. Reference had been made to +the sentiments of hatred and revenge, but those sentiments were the +outcome of habit or atavism. Formerly they were exercised in the same way +against the insane. The change of feeling towards the insane is due to a +true appreciation of the nature and causes of insanity. We do not +sufficiently consider the conditions under which criminals are placed. It +is not without reason that our Russian people speak of prisoners as +“unfortunates.” M. Vesnitch (the official representative of Servia) +desired that the legal side of the question should not be lost sight of. +The study of anthropology and of law ought to be compulsory for all those +who desire to become governors of prisons. + +M. Sarraute then read a paper on the judicial applications of criminal +sociology. Law students should be examined in criminal anthropology and +legal medicine. Imprisonment should be for an indefinite period, and the +prisoner carefully observed and examined. The jury should be modified. M. +Tarde observed that advocates were already using the results of criminal +anthropology, and it was necessary that magistrates should be in a +position to appreciate the bearings of such arguments. + +M. Taladriz then read a paper on “Criminality in its relations with +Ethnography,” drawing his illustrations largely from Spain, where crime +differs greatly in different parts of the peninsula. He desired the +establishment of an international penal code, protecting the rights of +nationalities. + +In the afternoon Professor Benedikt presided, and M. Van Hamel read his +report on the “Cellular System from the point of view of Biology and of +Criminal Sociology.” He concluded that there should be a very careful +selection of cases for cellular isolation, subject to psychical and +medical examination. The results depended quite as much on the treatment +adopted during the cellular confinement as on the confinement itself. + +On the proposition of M. Garofalo a commission was appointed to carry on a +series of observations on 100 criminals and 100 honest persons whose +antecedents were perfectly well known. On the proposition of M. Semal, the +Congress affirmed the necessity of a psycho-moral examination of the +prisoner as a preliminary to conditional liberation. It was resolved also +that it is desirable that law students should be instructed and examined +in legal medicine; and, on the proposition of M. Eschenauer, that the +direction and instruction of young children in reformatories should be +confided to experienced women. + +In his closing discourse Professor Brouardel remarked how various and +complex are the issues raised by criminal anthropology. They were dealing +with one of the most interesting and profound of all problems--a problem +which had in all ages exercised the human mind. The Congress had brought +together some of the materials for a future edifice, although they were +not yet able to raise it. + +The _Archives de l’Anthropologie Criminelle_ was the official journal of +the Congress, and the number for September 1889 was entirely devoted to +its proceedings. The next Congress will be held at Brussels in 1892. + + + + +APPENDIX C. + +_The International Association of Penal Law._ + + +This association was founded in 1889 on the initiative of Professor von +Liszt. Its success was immediate, especially among lawyers, professors of +law, and magistrates; and this success is a remarkable proof of the great +movement for penal reform which is now everywhere making itself felt. +Nearly twenty countries in Europe and America are represented by the +association. It is truly international; no attempt is made to discuss +national modifications, or to advocate the doctrine of any school. The +conditions of membership involve adhesion to the following +propositions:-- + +I.--The mission of penal law is to combat criminality regarded as a social +phenomenon. + +II.--Penal science and penal legislation must therefore take into +consideration the results of anthropological and sociological studies. + +III.--Punishment is one of the most efficacious means which the state can +use against criminality. It is not the only means. It must not, then, be +isolated from other social remedies, and, especially, it must not lead to +the neglect of preventive measures. + +IV.--The distinction between accidental criminals and habitual criminals +is essential in practice as well as in theory; it must be the foundation +of penal law. + +V.--As repressive tribunals and the penitentiary administration have the +same ends in view, and as the sentence only acquires value by its mode of +execution, the separation, consecrated by our modern laws, between the +court and the prison is irrational and harmful. + +VI.--Punishment by deprivation of liberty justly occupying the first place +in our system of punishments, the association gives special attention to +all that concerns the amelioration of prisons and allied institutions. + +VII.--So far as short imprisonments are concerned, the association +considers that the substitution of measures of equivalent efficacity is +possible and desirable. + +VIII.--So far as long imprisonments are concerned, the association holds +that the length of the imprisonment must depend not only on the material +and moral gravity of the offence, but on the results obtained by treatment +in prison. + +IX.--So far as incorrigible habitual criminals are concerned, the +association holds that, independently of the gravity of the offence, and +even with regard to the repetition of minor offences, the penal system +ought before all to aim at putting these criminals for as long a period as +possible under conditions where they cannot do injury. + +“The association,” it is elsewhere stated, “starts from this point of +view, that in order to combat criminality we must know criminality.” As +Professor von Liszt said, “That which guides us and brings us together is +the conviction that penal science must rest on the firm basis of facts, +must attach itself to the realities of social and individual life, and not +be content with the purely intellectual development of purely legal +notions.” This is the only sound and rational foundation for criminal law, +and it is because the association has adopted this foundation that I +desire to call special attention to its valuable and fruitful work. + +The first session was held at Brussels, in August 1889. Berne was selected +for the second, in 1890. The bulletins of the association (printed both +in French and German) contain the reports presented at these meetings, as +well as the subsequent discussions. They may be obtained, for a small sum, +from the publisher, J. Guttentag, Berlin, or from C. Muquardt, Librairie +Européenne, Brussels. The annual subscription is four shillings, and is +payable to Professor G. A. Van Hamel, Amsterdam, Holland. + + + + +APPENDIX D. + +_Some Cases of Criminality._ + + +I have here brought together a few cases of fairly ordinary and +representative criminality, chiefly in order to show how such cases are +generally investigated. It has not seemed desirable to lay down any +definite system of examination. Elaborate schemes have been prepared; it +is more difficult to settle on a definite scheme on a small scale. At +present it seems best to leave much to the judgment of the individual +investigator. The six cases here given will serve to show how criminality +is usually investigated, and may be useful as a guide. + +I.--B. A., aged 18, carpenter; weight, kilog. 69.3; height, m. 1.77. +Complexion pale. In various parts of body scars from wounds by knife, +dagger, stones, and glass, received in various quarrels. Head also covered +by scars. Hair on head very abundant; entirely without beard. Prominent +superciliary arches. Enormous frontal sinuses, lower jaw voluminous; +lemurian appendix present; forehead low and narrow; head normal. + +Esthesiometer: left, 1½ right, 1¼; tongue, 1½. Dynamometer: left, 42; +right, 40½. Tendon reflexes normal. General sensibility: right, 52; left, +50. Sensibility to pain: right, 28; left, 30. Slow to distinguish colours. + +Drunkard; began at age of 12, led on by his mother. Has thieved +frequently, but only found out once at the end of two years, and +condemned. Is irreligious. + +When he is drunk feels melancholy. Has epileptic convulsions, in which he +falls down, and is frequently wounded. He has had similar fits for six +years; they are followed by complete amnesia. The first came on in an +educational institute, after being compelled to take a cold bath in +January. + +Three or four hours before the fit he is so stupid that he cannot reckon +two coppers that he holds in his hand; and that he cannot recognise the +people around him, though he may have known them for some time. + +After the fit he does not know where he is, and for two or three days +cannot drink water or bathe, on account, he says, of the cold bath that +brought on his disorder. + +Is not easily affected; has no aspirations; does not concern himself with +politics. + +Cannot say anything of his parents, except that his mother was a drunkard. +(V. Rossi.) + +II.--D., age 18, of Turin, smith. A woman’s head tattooed on his right +arm, and the beginning of a name (record of love); in epigastric region a +transfixed heart (to recall a revenge to be accomplished). A scar in left +frontal region; cannot, or will not, say how he got it, but has ever since +suffered from giddiness. + +Complexion very pale; vasomotor reaction more marked on the left; pupils +react slowly; facial asymmetry; ears prominent. Hair sparse, dry, and very +dark. Fingers very long and slender. Has tremors; suffers from hypertrophy +of heart. Head acrocephalic, flattened at the nape. + +Cranial measurements: longitudinal diameter, 177; transverse, 151; +longitudinal curve, 360; transverse, 300; maximum circumference, 530. +Dynamometer: both hands, 34; right, 14; left, 17. Esthesiometer: right, +1.8; left, 1.2; tongue, 0.4. Topographic sensibility erroneous in both +hands. General electrical sensibility: right, 49; left, 43. Sensibility to +pain: right, 20; left, 27. (Normal person gives: general, 53; to pain, +38.) Temperature in axilla, 37°5. Slow to distinguish colours. + +Vicious from a child; very precocious sexual habits. + +At eight years commenced at school to steal certificates of merit in order +to get a prize. At fourteen, at the invitation of a friend who was a +thief, robbed a jeweller; from that time committed numerous robberies +whenever he could. Willingly gets drunk, but his chief passion is travel. + +In politics he would prefer a Republic, but without police or prisons; but +confesses that in winter, when work is scarce, “it is not bad in prison.” + +His parents affirm they are honest, but not the other relations. Mother +suffers from palpitation of the heart. One sister is leading a bad life; +another is very religious. A maternal cousin was in prison. (V. Rossi.) + +III.--Certa Fil, condemned to four years’ imprisonment for thefts of fur +cloaks and similar articles. Age 56. Circumference of head, 545. Right eye +placed rather low. Tendon reflexes normal. + +From a child she has suffered from illness caused by fear, owing to a fall +into the water. From fifteen to thirty suffered from frequent headaches. +Eight years ago, about three years before thefts, had typhoid fever, and +also contracted syphilis from her husband. She had frequent and severe +pain in the temples. No children. Her mother suffered from arthritis, +which caused melancholy, which is said to have contributed to her death. +She had fourteen children, mostly twins, who all died at birth except one, +who is very extravagant and dissolute. + +_Sensibility._--With esthesiometer: on the hand, 3 mm. on left, 2 mm. on +right; head, 16 mm.; tongue, 9 mm. With faradic current: general +sensibility, 70 mm.; on the hands, while a student has pain on palm at 55, +on dorsum at 60, she has pain on right palm at 50, left at 50; right +dorsum at 60, left at 55. Strength with dynamometer slight: right, 28 cg.; +left, 38 cg.; with both hands, 58 cg. + +_Psychological Examination._--Married at age of nineteen, she lived +happily with husband for twenty years, _i.e._, until age of thirty-nine. +Then the husband began to lead a dissolute life, and infected his wife +with syphilis. Driven wild by her husband’s continual ill-treatment, she +began to steal furs and other articles from a neighbouring shop. She was +always afraid of being discovered, and experienced remorse which took away +sleep and appetite, and she planned methods for restoring the things +without being discovered. + +During her four years of imprisonment she did not learn the _gergo_ or +prisoner’s slang, would not associate with her companions, and was always +crying. She blushed slightly when questioned concerning her periods. + +_Diagnosis._--This woman, under the stress of illnesses and need of money, +was drawn to theft; she was not, however, predisposed to crime, and +(excepting the dissolute conduct of one brother) there were no marked +signs of hereditary degeneration. When we add that she was never given to +orgies, that she did not care to associate with her criminal companions, +that she did not learn the _gergo_, that she blushed when spoken to +without due consideration, we must conclude that she is an occasional +criminal. If she had been in a comfortable social condition, and in good +relation with her husband, she would probably not have become a +delinquent. (Giuseppe Abradi, _Archivio di Psichiatria_, vol. x. Fasc. I.) + +IV.--R. S., of Naples, age 23; height, m. 1.68; weight, kilog. 82.5. +Soldier. + +Traces on skin of wounds from fire-arms and knives; one on the abdomen +given him by a woman. + +Colour of skin is dark. + +Tattoo marks on legs and arms: initials, daggers in memory of revenges to +be accomplished, arrows as records of love; on his hand a sun; also bears +the signs of the _camorra_, of which, but only as a great secret, he +revealed the significance. + +He declares that for him, and for the _camorrista_ in general, tattooing +is “a passion, an ambition, like that, for example, of students for their +collars and ties.” “The more one is tattooed,” he said, “the more one is +esteemed and feared by comrades, because it shows how far one has gone in +the road of crime.” + +Hair on head thick and dark; complete absence of beard. Prognathism: +forehead small and narrow (165 × 48), lower jaw voluminous; eyes small and +very mobile; frontal sinuses prominent. Has a certain air of _bonhomie_ in +his face which contrasts with the cynicism with which he narrates his +criminal achievements. + +Cranial measurements: longitudinal diameter, 187; transverse, 150; +longitudinal curve, 364; transverse, 310; maximum circumference, 557. +Dynamometer: with both hands, 84; with right, 54; with left, 43. Supports +with extended arm a weight of kilog. 5 for fourteen minutes. +Esthesiometer: right, 3.5; left, 4.5. Electrical sensibility: right, 40; +left, 45. Sensibility to pain: right, 0; left, 0. Slow to distinguish +colours, confusing blue and green. Thermometer: right, 37°5; left, 37°9. + +Fond of wine; vicious since he was a child. Natural and unnatural sexual +habits. + +Except venereal disorders and a cyst, which he had as a child, has never +been ill. + +He has indeed been sent to a hospital as insane, but it was feigned, as he +was then under trial, in order to obtain “attenuating circumstances.” + +By him and his family religion is regarded as merely imposture, and +politics does not exist. In the newspapers he only reads the police news, +as that which alone concerns him. + +At age of 10 was “sent to college” (_i.e._, house of correction), because +he was found taking the impression of a lock. There he was initiated in +the _camorra_, exercised by the lads clandestinely. + +On coming out, he committed numerous offences, of which more than one +remained unpunished. He wounded a prostitute whom he found with another +lover. Thieved with dexterity, and was once condemned to twenty-five +months’ imprisonment. He robs from houses, and when opportunity offers +picks pockets. At a penal establishment he joined with others to rob the +director. He confesses that in his family, except one sister who is +honest, all are rogues of his own stamp. + +Maternal grandfather died at 60 in the hospital. Mother is healthy, but +drinks; lost all her hair at 50; condemned for fraud and wounding. Father +had five years’ imprisonment for attempting to wound his brother, a +priest, who refused to give him money; also drinks, and when drunk is very +lively. A paternal uncle was condemned for “qualified” robbery. The +maternal uncles are all _camorristi_. + +He has five brothers and one sister. One, G., was four times in hospital, +because when he committed a grave offence he feigned madness; so far this +game has always succeeded, and he has been acquitted or punishment +diminished. When he has money he is an angel, says R. S., but when he has +none, he flies from him like the plague, for he becomes furious. He is a +drunkard, and once when drunk severely wounded his mistress without cause. + +Another brother, G., is a _camorrista_ and sharper. + +Another brother, E., does the elegant, and steals from “aristocrats”; +suffers from dizziness, especially in summer, or when near a fire. + +A brother, N., calls himself an artist, takes impressions of locks, and +makes false keys, for which he demands a more or less elevated price, +according to the amount of the booty. Also studies padlocks, and makes +facsimiles; does not rob on his own account, nor is he _camorrista_; and +does not use the knife even when drunk. + +The last of the brothers, Gia., has been condemned more than once for +robbery and picking pockets. Is _camorrista_. (V. Rossi.) + +V.--The following carefully-taken case (by Professor Angelo Zuccarelli, of +Naples) of incorrigible insubordination in a soldier is translated from +_L’Anomalo_ of January 1889, and is a model of careful and systematic +examination:-- + +Habitual conduct in the army, from 1881-1888, both on and off duty, is +reported as bad; frequently guilty of theft, insubordination and +destruction of military effects. [Details here given of 59 offences, with +resulting punishments, during this period.] + +The following facts are all that can be obtained as to his family and +previous history:-- + +Among the ancestors of his parents some eccentricity. + +Mother hysterical, with nymphomania, and deafness due to chronic otitis. + +Father, a drunkard and irascible. + +One sister imbecile, and another scrofulous. + +A brother, instinctive thief, imprisoned for “qualified” theft. + +All the family given to thieving. + +Our subject, now 28 years old, had no education from his parents; was a +shoemaker at Stilo (Reggio, Calabria), his native place, where he had a +bad reputation for idleness and thieving. + + +PHYSICAL EXAMINATION. + +_Head._ + +_Inspection and Palpation._--A considerable depression in the lambdoid +region. + +External occipital protuberance scarcely perceptible. + +Markedly plagiocephalic on the right side, anteriorly; with +plagio-prosopia on the same side. + +Ears small; the right planted further back. + +Prognathism of the superior maxilla. + +Absence of the two upper middle incisor teeth, from a fall in childhood. +Inferior dental arch, with parabolic and oblique margin to the right; +depressed on the right. + +Colour of face, yellowish, pale. + +Beard thin. + + _Measurements._--Circumference at the base cent. 54 + Anterior semi-circumference " 28½ + Posterior " " " 25½ + Antero-posterior curve " 31 + Transverse " " 31½ + Approximate cranial capacity (results of three curves), 1165. + Maximum antero-posterior diameter mill. 182 + " transverse diameter " 147 + Cephalic index, 80.76 (cranial type, sub-brachycephalic). + Bi-auricular diameter mill. 128 + Bi-mastoid " " 126 + Maximum frontal diameter " 104 + Bi-orbital " " 108 + Bi-maxillary " " 102 + Height of the forehead " 56 + " " face " 128 + Length of nose (to tip) " 54½ + Width " (base) " 32 + +_Trunk and Limbs._ + +Body slender. Height medium. + +Left mammary region depressed, and nipple lower than on right side. +Posteriorly the left base of the thorax rather less developed than the +right. + +Hands thin, with long and pointed fingers. + +Tattoo marks on the two fore-arms: on the right a transfixed heart, a +woman’s head, the letters F. and B.; on the left two stars, one large, the +other small, the letters L. and A. (his initials), a cross, and nearer the +wrist an indistinct sign ending in a B. + +On the feet the two little toes are small, especially the left, out of +proportion to the development of the rest of the foot. + +Hair sparse. + +Superficial veins healthy, but varicose in left popliteal region. Genital +organs little developed. + + +PHYSIOLOGICAL EXAMINATION. + +_Dynamometer._--Right hand, 90; left hand, 85. + +_Tactile sensibility._--On the tongue the two points of the +_esthesiometer_ are perceived only at a distance of five mill. In general +the sensibility is very feeble. Localisation very inaccurate; impressions +on one side often referred to the other. + +_Sensibility to pain._--Advanced hypoalgesia, while reiterated punctures +fetching blood are felt as slight touches. Burns with a lighted cigar are +little if at all felt; but there is some dissimulation on the part of the +subject. + +_Thermal and meteoric sensibility._--Apparently abolished. + +There has been no opportunity for electrical examination. + +_Sight._--Does not distinguish colours well; sees red best. Pupils react +imperfectly. + +_Hearing._--On the right side says he cannot hear a watch in immediate +contact; on the left only at a short distance. In other ways his hearing +has been found to be defective. + +_Smell._--Does not distinguish odours, of which in many cases he has no +knowledge. Ammonia alone, deeply inhaled for a few seconds, causes slight +lachrymation on the right side. + +_Taste._--Perceives vinegar, but not salt, bitter or sweet substances. On +offering him half a glass of decoction of cinchona, and telling him that +it is wine, and then another of vinegar, he swallows it all eagerly +without any indication of disagreeable sensations. On giving him a bitter +substance, and telling him it is sweet, he repeats that it is sweet, and +_vice versâ_. + +Appetite voracious; digestive functions normal. Circulation and +respiration weak. + + +PSYCHICAL EXAMINATION. + +Ideas very limited. No imagination or æsthetic sense. Memory very weak, +limited to the most elementary and primitive cognitions. Will feeble, in +the absence of any morbid impulse. + +Moral and affective sentiments almost entirely absent. + +No disposition to occupy himself in any way; tendency to idleness and +vagabondage. + +Unrestrained onanism, to which he formerly gave way four or five times a +day, now only about twice a day, because, as he says, he is no longer +strong enough. He confesses this without the least shame, with +complacency, almost with pleasure. + +He is not without a certain shrewdness, which is, however, easily +discovered. He seems to have learnt from fellow-prisoners to pretend to +feel nothing, and to be ready for anything. + +He is capable of dissimulation, and of simulating at certain moments a +state of feebleness beyond what he feels. + +In his cell he usually walks up and down with short, bent head, and surly +look. He is only aroused in moments of anger and violent impulsion. + +He is often discontented with his food, and throws it away, breaking out +into howls rather than cries, and destroying everything--table, stools, +etc. In this condition any opposition only renders him more savage. Gentle +methods often succeed better, especially when the stage of exhaustion sets +in. + +At other times the cause is some limitation to his tendency to free +vagabondage. The animal-like howls are set up; then comes the destruction +of everything that surrounds him, and violences of all sorts. + +When he is interrogated in his calmer moments as to the reason of this, he +replies that it is what they do in his country. + + +DIAGNOSIS. + +_Advanced physical and psycho-physical degeneration. Phrenasthenia. Moral +idiocy. Instinctive criminality._ + + +MEDICO-LEGAL AND SOCIAL CONSIDERATIONS. + +This is the case of an instinctive criminal, a person fatally and +immutably impelled to vagabondage, theft, and violence. + +He bears the characters, physical and psycho-physical, of degeneration, of +aberration, of constitutional abnormality, sufficient for recognition. +Especially noteworthy are the lambdoidal depression, the marked +plagiocephalia and plagio-prosopia, the superior prognathism, and the +inferior dental irregularities, the thoracic asymmetry, the pallid +complexion, the hypoalgesia, the weakness and perversion of some of the +special senses, the unrestrained onanism, the predominant love of +vagabondage, the furious and animal-like anger, the destructive +tendencies. + +It is clear that all the admonitions and punishments inflicted during +seven years, besides failing to produce any good effects, succeeded in +exercising, so to speak, the natural mechanism of his violent impulses, +and thus brutalised him still further. He is, therefore, incorrigible. + +Of this the Military Tribunal of Naples were, as the result of this +examination, convinced, declared that our subject is irresponsible, and +acquitted him. + +But does the duty of science end here? Is this verdict sufficient for +order and social security? + +Surely not. + +This individual, thus constituted, must be regarded as a perpetual source +of danger. It is therefore necessary to adopt a mode of treatment which, +instead of brutalising him, will endeavour to obtain from him the maximum +social utility of which he is capable, while at the same time it will +render it impossible for him to injure other persons who are unlike +himself. + +For this purpose sequestration is necessary, the method of moral treatment +and the watchful care obtained within a criminal asylum. + +VI.--The following report, by O. Hotzen (here abbreviated), appeared in +the _Vierteljahresschrift für gerichtliche Medicin_, and in the _Archivio +di Psichiatria_ for 1889, fasc. 2. + +Maria Köster died at the age of 22 of tuberculosis; at the age of 18 she +had killed her mother with a hatchet; sixty wounds were found in the +mother’s body, some of them penetrating the skull. + +As until then the girl had always been of good character, quiet and +hard-working, and on account of her youthful age, she was examined by +medical experts in order to ascertain if any morbid conditions had limited +her free will. + +No mental alienation was recognised, especially at the time of the deed, +but certain preceding morbid phenomena and other subsequent circumstances +led the experts to an opinion which resulted in the commutation of the +death penalty to which she had been condemned. + +Among her maternal ancestors, and in the mother herself, there had been +extreme avarice; they were most eager of money, and possessed by the fury +of gain; it was proved that this impulse had in some members of the family +paralysed the sentiments of equity and honesty. + +The father was a drunkard. + +The girl had a certain amount of education; she wrote, in an exact style, +a diary of her impressions. She had acted as a servant, as an assistant in +a printing-office, as a sempstress. She was thin, and slightly developed; +menstruated at 19; had a very high opinion of herself. + +Apparently of tranquil disposition, she was declared by some to be +envious, a liar, and a thief. + +Notwithstanding simulated indifference, she coveted the savings which her +mother had scraped together; she cherished hatred against her parents; +continual quarrels and unworthy calumnies revealed a heart apparently +good, in reality selfish and depraved. + +There was slight asymmetry of the face, due to flattening on the right +side; there was no perceptible lack of cranial symmetry. + +The right pupil was larger than the left; both movable and perfectly +sensitive. + +She had hysterical attacks, which became rare before the deed, and were +interpreted as a sexual neurosis of puberty. These attacks began with +præcordial anxiety and oppression of breathing, and usually ended with a +strong desire for movement, to which she yielded with only partial +consciousness. She was sometimes for hours in a semi-conscious condition, +with extravagant movements, vociferations, senseless talk, etc. Sometimes +she exaggerated the attacks; at other times opposed them. From papers that +she wrote in prison, it appears that some of these attacks were entirely +simulated. + +The sexual functions were very irregular; she pretended a want of +inclination towards the other sex; the hymen was found lacerated. + +She wrote a romance of her life, leaving out everything that might cause +disgust, and expressing penitence for the attacks that she confessed to be +simulated. + +On her death-bed she developed attacks which were certainly not simulated. + +She was very excitable, and her life was overspread by nervous tempests +which, in spite of herself, she was not able to dominate. + +She had little love for her mother, who was avaricious and hard-hearted, +and refused her the slightest help. + +In one of her papers, dating from the time of her most severe hysterical +phenomena, there are religious expressions marked by undoubted sincerity; +but when religion did not afford the consolation she expected, her zeal +cooled and she went to the opposite extreme. + +After a brief mental struggle, she quietly selected the necessary +instruments, and studied her criminal design to its smallest details, +taking care to avoid discovery. After having formed her plans, she passed +the night in quiet sleep, and on the following day committed the deed. + +In appearance everything was the work of premeditation and clear +consciousness. After the deed she astutely made insinuations against her +father, who was entirely innocent of complicity; on her knees, by her +mother’s body, she declared her own innocence. + +She carried simulation to a fine point of art, displaying during these +days an energy and resolution astonishing in a person so weak. It is clear +that her deed had for the time raised her above herself. + +She had a strange avidity for her mother’s goods. Her great desire was +separation from the paternal house and an independent position. + +After the deed she said that she was no longer in the hands of Satan. + +In prison she lived for more than three years without giving any sign of +mental or of physical disease. She bore herself in an unchanging, composed +manner, depressed, free from all eccentricity; it was a consolation to her +to know that her father and her sister had forgiven her. + +At the end of 1886 appeared signs of rapid tuberculosis, to which she +succumbed. She died penitent, feeling sure of reconciliation with God. + +At the autopsy advanced tuberculosis was found in both lungs, also in the +kidneys; this was the cause of death. + +The brain could not be examined immediately, and was therefore preserved. + +The dura mater, adherent to the cranium externally, was white and lacking +in lustre; internally there were bright spots with red maculæ as distinct +as in hemorrhagic pachymeningitis. + +The brain was soft, humid, and very anæmic. Its weight, after the serum in +the cavities had flowed away, was 1164 grammes. The occipital lobes did +not entirely cover the cerebellum. + +The form of the brain was elliptic. The sulci appeared deep and large. The +parietal and temporal lobes were very large, with great development of the +convolutions and numerous atypic clefts. The frontal lobe was small +compared to the parietal, and its convolutions compressed. The frontal and +occipital convolutions were not atypic except by their slight development. + +There was scanty development of the frontal and occipital lobes, +especially on the left side. + +_Conclusions._--We have here a real atrophy of the cerebral cortex, which +has the characters of a congenital hereditary degeneration. This atrophy +is manifested in the insufficient development of the frontal and, still +more, the occipital convolutions, in the smallness of the convolutions, in +the incomplete covering of the cerebellum by the cerebrum, and by the +number of atypical segmentations in the cerebral cortex, representing (at +all events in the opinion of Benedikt) a true aplasia. + +These sulci were not the result of superior development; in their +neighbourhood there was no increase in the cerebral substance; they are +connected with a true atrophy of the cerebral mass. It is impossible to +admit the idea of atavistic regression. The connections found between the +frontal and inter-parietal fissures cannot be considered as the +re-crystallisation of the primitive convolutions and the longitudinal +fissures which characterise especially the carnivorous type. All these +deviations are found separately in brains which have for the rest a normal +structure. That which gives the morbid character is the extraordinary +amount of irregularity. + +It cannot be denied that the left hemisphere was the most irregular, +although there was no cranial asymmetry; facial asymmetry only being +recognisable. + +This matricide suffered from a grave neurosis at puberty, which left +traces up to near the time of the homicide; her judgments of life were +affected by a permanent and powerful morbid influence. + +We cannot put into exact causal relation the degenerative changes in Maria +Köster’s brain, and the perturbations of her psychical activity during +life, but we are justified in considering her not completely responsible +for all her actions. + + + + +APPENDIX E. + +_Elmira._ + + +In the Report for 1885 the Secretary of Schools writes:-- + +Like Practical Morality, English Literature was at the beginning voted a +nuisance by the selected members and greeted by them as a fresh infliction +for the purpose of making more difficult the earning of marks. Distaste +was varied by positive anger; here and there a man suffered his first +bewilderment to pass into sullen unwillingness to make an attempt to +understand the new study. Several on receiving a play or an essay, opened +the book and closed it, doggedly declaring they had not the remotest idea +of what was expected of them. Encouraging advice was given in every case +of this sort that came to light, and when the pressure of the approaching +examination began to act, nearly every man, willing or unwilling, attacked +his author and his outlines. This first examination was sufficiently +creditable and the historical part at least was well done; but expected +signs were not wanting of mental confusion, of indifference, of +ineffectual groping after an author’s very palpable meaning, signs which +revealed a likely material for mental discipline of the most valuable +kind. The only means of removing these difficulties seemed to lie in +repeated doses of the same medicine, a conclusion soon warranted by +experience. Whatever could be was now done in the way of artificial +illumination, and when it appeared that examinations could be and actually +were passed by many men in the new subject, confidence began to dawn, and +the authors were taken up for the next test with less ugliness and far +more of tolerance. In a little while the class gathered momentum and +became thoroughly a fact. The change was accompanied by phenomena which +are unique from an educational and psychological point of view. + +Any one passing along our corridors and galleries might now have witnessed +a curious spectacle--that of a student of literature reading by gaslight, +not the accustomed novel or light history, but the _Prologue_ of the +Canterbury Tales, the tragedy of Hamlet, Emerson’s _May-Day_, or the story +of Evangeline; pondering over the weighted pages of Bacon, or keenly +trying to read between the lines of Browning’s _Paracelsus_; not rarely +with a note-book at hand filled with private comments wrought out against +the coming examination. At the examinations, be it remembered, the pupil +was required to answer historical questions and, more important than this, +to write out extemporaneously an essay or report dealing with some topic, +more or less extensive, growing out of the text of his author--which topic +was selected not by himself but by the Instructor on the day of the test. +If one could realise the mental process of a “tough” from the slums of the +metropolis, who, after passing up from class to class of our school, is +forced to apply his intellectual faculties for the first time to the +careful reading of an essay of Macaulay or a poem of Goldsmith, to enter +in short upon the _terra incognita_ of good literature; and if one could +then conceive of the state of this same “tough” when, after six months of +application with growing susceptibility, he reads up _for pure pleasure_ +the history of the Renaissance, searches the pages of Dante for +illustrations of the text of Chaucer, ransacks our reference library for +specimens of early English;--if one could do this he would comprehend in +some measure what has been done by our class in English Literature. Our +students, of course, were not wholly without intellectual culture at the +start. A few possessed a large amount of it. All had been imbued with some +sense of the excellence of culture by the labours of our lecturers in +science, philosophy, and history. The discussions in the Practical +Morality class had awakened our argumentative powers and developed a sharp +relish for ethical questions. We had all had experience, too, in the +reading of standard works of fiction and even of books of utility; but the +formal study of an English, often of an old English, author, involving an +examination, was something wholly new. A direct movement towards pure +æsthetic culture was unprecedented for men who generally demanded that +books should be amusing, should help to kill time in prison. The first +effect was, as already remarked, discouraging. English literature did not +immediately “take.” But necessity made it take, and the inevitable love of +literature which quickly sprang up did the rest. The essays and poems were +conned over and over, and minds heretofore innocent of culture became +saturated with the drinkable gold of the classics. A change of feeling +came over us; distaste passed into satisfaction as the intrinsic beauty of +the masters leavened our minds; indifference gave way to zeal and the +study became delightful. An interest feeble at first had grown rapidly. +Among the early favourable indications were the requests for information +as to the lives of authors and the eager reading of biographies and +literary notices. Then arose the desire to read other works of a given +author, or to be allowed to spend another month in more minute study of a +masterpiece already absorbed in the rough. Notes poured steadily in upon +me exhibiting in countless ways the growth of a sentiment which can be +termed nothing else than enthusiasm. It was a true _naissance_ or birth of +letters. Like the scholars of the Revival period in England, our students, +inspired by the simple love of learning, sought culture everywhere. Every +available source of enlightenment, every volume of classic English in our +reference library, was in its journey from hand to hand of our students a +testimony to their enthusiasm. Books which had long remained unused +suddenly became very popular, and the delight in reading expanded so as to +include not merely literature but other lines as well--ethics, economics, +sociology, history, the ancient classics, natural science. Thus on a very +small scale, but none the less truly, our revival followed an instinctive +development entirely similar to the great Renaissance. As we write the +interest is undiminished, but rather grows by its own great energy of +motion. The new spirit penetrates the whole life of the institution. In +their social intercourse our inmates make regular topics of books and +authors; informal debates diversify the Dining Hall exercises, and the +instructor is gratuitously made the arbiter of frequent discussions of the +“new learning.” Even with incorrigible and indifferent men, who remain +uninfected by enthusiasm, the simple strain of inexorable requirement has +proved and is proving valuable. + +In the Report for 1888 Mr. Z. R. Brockway, the General Superintendent, +writes of the literary training of criminals:-- + +After many years’ experience in efforts to educate young criminals as a +means of their reformation I am more and more impressed with its +importance. To progress from illiteracy to a good common school education +involves such changes, and increase of mind-power, that the prisoner, +under similar circumstances to those of his crime, will be likely to +differently govern his conduct. Possessing more of intelligence, he +instinctively sees the consequences of misconduct more clearly than was +possible for him previously, and he will, even without consciously willing +to follow good moral conduct for the sake of morality, be more likely to +follow it as the path of wisdom. It is, as the rule, idle to expect a +change of character without a change of mind; and without new habitudes, +which are the result of educational training, there cannot be confidently +predicted any permanent change of mind. To advance a young man from the +habit of blind obedience to his instincts to habitual conduct, that is +self-regulated by more or less of reason, is to insure some change of +character, and usually a change for the better. The general library, +although of but moderate proportions, contributes not a little to such an +educational advancement. The small reference library has, the year past, +been well used under pressure of a demand occasioned by the lectures, +which are followed with examinations, affecting the date of the prisoner’s +release. The books in this library division are mainly of philosophical, +mechanical, historical, and biographical character, with a few poetical +works from standard authors. The librarian’s distribution receipt book +shows that, of these reference library books, there have been issued, by +request during the year, 7588 books besides the issue of the general +library books, and a weekly issue of 400 magazines and periodicals. The +taste for and habit of reading that many have acquired while here, have, +as we have reason to believe, followed and remained with them at home +after their release. Letters from parents and friends have been received +expressing their surprise and gratification that he who previous to his +course of training here was restless at home, hurrying to the street after +the day’s work and evening meal, now since his return from the +reformatory, hurries home from his work, finding for himself, and +imparting to others, happiness with his books and quiet domestic +enjoyments. + +In the same Report Mr. Marvin, the instructor of the class in Practical +Ethics, writes:-- + +The nature of the lessons may be expressed roughly by saying that the +moral life has been taken up as the subject of study, just as wealth is +taken up in political economy, but no strictly theological questions have +been brought in. Such difficulties of thought regarding moral +distinctions, motives good and bad, conflicts of conscience, the justice +and expediency of laws and governments, as usually arise as people begin +to reflect seriously upon the ways of the better social life, have been +considered, besides many practical questions regarding self-control, +elevation of feeling and thought, and the part of wisdom in every-day +affairs. To provide a thread by which the lectures might be connected into +a systematic series, they have been thrown into the form of reviews of the +views in turn of the various master-minds in the department of ethical +knowledge, as to the leading purpose of the wise man. Many quotations from +these writers have been given, so that the instruction has afforded some +information to the man of a historical or semi-philosophical character +aside from its main purpose. + +The aim has been not so much to impart a knowledge of stereotyped facts +and ideas as to stimulate the minds of the men to obtain for themselves a +true conception of the moral order of the world of which they are members, +and to form true convictions as to their relations to it. On this account +both sides of doubtful questions have been noticed and a decision called +for. The leading consideration in the selection of lecture topics from +week to week has been the needs and interest already shown. Free +discussion has always been allowed, and in some cases it has seemed +profitable to devote almost the whole lesson period to it. This method not +only holds the interest of the learners, even causing it at times to run +quite high, but enables the instructor to carry them along more readily to +desired conclusions. + +The intelligence of the class is, I think, on the whole best compared to +that of an advanced class in a high school, some, of course, rising above +this standard, others falling below. In general, as compared with persons +of similar age in the better classes outside, they seem to be bright and +quick rather than deep or close students. Their remarks in the class +frequently bring forth applause or signs of disapproval from their +responsive fellows, and occasionally a vein of purer metal and greater +depth is touched. Without much liking for books, they seem to take +naturally and successfully to the study of human nature. As might be +expected, they do not evince much previous reflection upon ethical +matters--not as much, I think, comparing them again to those of similar +age outside, as upon economic topics. + +In what degree the purpose of this course of instruction has been +accomplished cannot of course be determined. The examination papers as a +whole, taken with the conduct of the men in class and elsewhere in the +prison, seem to warrant the belief that considerable moral obscurity has +been removed. There is abundant evidence that cant and hypocrisy have less +to do with answers in examination than might be supposed, as the most +superficial and refractory views are there expressed with almost unbounded +confidence in their truth, and are marked the same as more approved views +when the question calls for opinions. + +In the Report for 1889 Mr. Brockway writes as follows of military drill +and of physical training:-- + +The military drill of the inmates, which commenced a year ago, has been +continued until now, and a good degree of perfection has been reached. Ten +companies compose a regiment of 803 men. Every day the unemployed inmates +are drilled in the forenoon; and all are drilled on Wednesday and Saturday +afternoons; there is a dress parade every evening at 4 o’clock, and once a +month a competitive examination is held, when all the companies compete +for a set of badges to be worn for the month by the commissioned officers +of the successful company. Gradually the government of the whole place is +becoming a military government, largely by inmate military officers. The +military organisation was made possible, indeed made necessary, by the +cessation of labour in August 1888, in obedience to the Act of July of +that year; but it has been found to be most serviceable in every way. The +health and bearing of the men is better, their habitual mental tone is +improved, common disciplinary difficulties have been diminished or +well-nigh removed, and the military government of a reformatory seems now +almost indispensable to satisfactory management. Holding this view, I +have, by the authority of the managers, appointed a competent military +instructor, Mr. Claude F. Bryan, making thus what at first was but an +experiment of military drill and government in a prison a permanent +department of training and a distinguishing feature of its disciplinary +regime. The regiment is fully officered with line and company officers, a +good brass band with drum corps is provided, and is in daily attendance at +dress parade. Courts-martial and a weekly officers’ class for the study of +tactics are held under the guidance of Colonel Bryan, and, in all things, +Upton’s tactics are closely followed. + +The building for the scientific physical renovating treatment of a +considerable class of the inmates is now nearly completed from funds +provided by the legislature of 1888. It is 80 × 140 feet, with an open +trussed roof over the whole space. The exercising hall is 80 × 100 feet, +and has suspended upon the walls a gallery for pedestrian exercise. A +space 40 × 80 feet of the eastern end is devoted to baths, hot, warm, and +plunge, and with rooms for massage treatment, etc., etc. Complete +scientific apparatus has been purchased, to be erected about the first of +December, when, with the enlarged opportunities and improved facilities, +as well as with the added experience and study of the physician and +instructor, a most interesting, and, it is believed, valuable experiment +will be made, intended to demonstrate what possible improvement may be +wrought with defectives and dullards, in their mental and moral habitudes, +by an improved physical tissue accomplished by wise and thorough physical +treatment. + + + + +INDEX. + + + Alcoholism in relation to crime, 97, 144, 281 + + Animals, crime among, 203 + + Animals among criminals, love of, 153 + + Anthropometric identification of criminals, 276 + + Aram, Eugene, 135, 153 + + Aristotle, 27 + + Art, criminal, 190 + + Aubrey, 250 + + + Barré, 20 + + Beltrani-Scalia, 36, 252, 264 + + Benedikt, 1, 43, 50, 61, 113, 237 + + Bertillon, A., 276 + + Bielakoff, 45 + + Bischoff, 60 + + Blushing in criminals, 121 + + Booth, J. W., 141 + + Borrow, G., 139 + + Bramwell, 290 + + “Breakings out” among criminals, 148 + + Brinvilliers, 129, 141 + + Broca, 61 + + Brockway, Z. R., 270 + + Byrnes, Inspector, 22, 81, 154 + + + Campi, 86 + + Capital punishment, 235 + + Carpenter, Miss, 149, 238 + + Casanova, 151 + + Cellini, 187 + + Cerebral characteristics of criminals, 60 + + Ceuta, 240 + + Children, crime among, 210 + + Chrétien family, the, 96 + + Clarke, Vans, 59 + + Colajanni, 23, 208, 248, 299 + + Colour blindness in criminals, 117 + + Contagion of crime, 177 + + Corre, 128, 286 + + Cranial characteristics of criminals, 49 + + Crime, the factors of, 24; + biological origins of, 203; + among children, 210; + the increase of, 295; + largely a social fact, 297 + + Criminals, political, 1; + by passion, 2; + instinctive, 17; + occasional, 17; + habitual, 19; + professional, 21; + cranial and cerebral characteristics of, 49; + physiognomy of, 63; + anomalies of hair among, 72; + of body and viscera, 88; + tattooing among, 102; + their motor activities, 108; + their physical sensibilities, 112; + their moral insensibility, 124; + their intelligence, 133; + their vanity, 139; + their emotional instability, 142; + their religion, 156; + their slang, 161; + their literature and art, 176; + their philosophy, 193; + the treatment of, 233; + the training of, 260; + at Elmira, 264; + anthropometric identification of, 276; + treatment of occasional, 278; + regarded as heroes, 283 + + Crothers, 99 + + Crozes, 182 + + + Dalla Porta, 28 + + Dally, 32 + + Davitt, 125, 162, 170, 238 + + Death, criminals’ ways of meeting, 128, 158 + + Despine, 33, 126 + + Desprez, 143 + + Disvulnerability of criminals, 113 + + Dixon, Hepworth, 80 + + Dostoieffsky, 121, 124, 130, 147, 153, 155, 193, 214, 276 + + Down, Langdon, 66, 84, 93, 150 + + Drago, Luis del, 45 + + Drill, 45 + + + Ear in criminals, the, 65 + + Elmira Reformatory, 92, 99, 183, 264 + + Epilepsy and crime, 228 + + Epileptics, 150 + + Eyesight in criminals, 116 + + + Fallot, 62 + + Féré, 43, 68, 280 + + Ferri, E., 23, 40, 78, 203 + + Flesch, 43, 62 + + Flogging, 274 + + Frigerio, 67, 70 + + Frontal crests, 51 + + + Galen, 27 + + Gall, 29, 61, 124 + + Galton, 109 + + Gambling among criminals, 144 + + Garofalo, 40, 78, 250, 259 + + Gautier, E., 81, 97, 143, 247 + + General paralysis and crime, 228 + + Giacomini, 61 + + Gradenigo, 118 + + Grohmann, 29 + + Guerra, 88 + + + Hair among criminals, anomalies of, 72 + + Hearing of criminals, 117 + + Heredity in criminals, 90 + + Hervé, 62 + + Holmgren, 117 + + Horsley, 35, 159, 162, 170, 252 + + + Idiocy and crime, 228 + + Idiots, 65, 68, 73, 93, 112, 117, 150, 228 + + Inebriates, treatment of, 281 + + Insanity and the criminal, 289 + + Insane, the, 89, 107, 150 + + + Japan, a prison in, 272 + + Joly, 19, 82, 157, 176 + + Jury, the, 292 + + “Jukes” family, the, 100, 222 + + + Kocher, 43 + + Korosi, 96 + + Krafft-Ebing, 43 + + Krapotkine, 144, 155, 240, 246, 256 + + Krauss, 43, 134 + + + Lacassagne, 24, 42, 88, 103, 106, 288 + + Lacenaire, 22, 153, 196, 203, 285 + + Laurent, 191 + + Lauvergne, 31, 159 + + Lavater, 29 + + Lebiez, 21, 181 + + Left-handedness in criminals, 108 + + Lélut, 32, 60 + + Liszt, 49 + + Literature, criminal, 176 + + Lombroso, 1, 36, 64, 72, 79, 83, 102, 120, 122, 170 + + + Manouvrier, 43, 64 + + Marro, 41, 83, 93, 133, 157, 217 + + Maternity and crime, 218 + + Maudsley, 33 + + Mayhew, 148, 215 + + Menesclou, 85 + + Meningitis among criminals, 63 + + Mingazzini, 52 + + Moral insanity, 17, 91, 211, 229 + + Moreau, Abbé, 142 + + Morel, 32 + + Motor activity of criminals, 108 + + Muscular anomalies in criminals, 88 + + + Naples, criminality of, 156 + + Nicolson, 35, 113, 149 + + Nose in criminals, the, 70 + + + Occipital fossa in criminals, median, 51 + + Orgy, criminals’ love of, 145 + + Ottolenghi, 42, 66, 70, 71, 75, 111, 116, 118 + + Oxycephaly in criminals, 50 + + + Pallor in criminals, 71 + + Penta, 41 + + Philosophy, criminal, 193 + + Physiognomy of criminals, 78 + + Pike, L. O., 207 + + Polemon, 28 + + Prins, 44, 47, 249, 299 + + Prison, the, 239 + + Prison inscriptions, 169 + + Professional criminals, 21, 223 + + Prostitution and crime, 218 + + Proverbs about criminals, 26, 78 + + + Quetelet, 24 + + + Ramlot, 115 + + Recidivism among women, 215 + + Religion of criminals, 156 + + Remorse among criminals, 129 + + Restif de la Bretonne, 74 + + Richter, 3 + + Rossi, 41, 99, 113, 130 + + Ruscovitch, 200 + + + Salillas, 44, 145, 150 + + Salsotto, 42, 73, 129, 219 + + Savages, crime among, 205 + + Schneider, Marie, 7 + + Seneca, 28 + + Sensibility in criminals, physical, 112 + + Sentiment among criminals, 152 + + Sergi, 83 + + Sexual anomalies in criminals, 89 + + Sexual differences in criminals, 59, 118-19, 129, 214-21 + + Sexual perversity among criminals, 144 + + Smell in criminals, sense of, 118 + + Socrates, 27 + + Sollier, Alice, 65 + + Songs, criminal, 180 + + Stephen, Justice, 290 + + _Summary, The_, 183 + + Sutherland, H., 74 + + + Tarde, 42, 205, 224 + + Tarnowskaia, 45, 64, 221 + + Taste in criminals, 119 + + Tattooing among criminals, 102 + + Taverni, 300 + + Tenchini, 51 + + Thieves’ slang, 61 + + Thomson, Bruce, 84 + + Tobacco among criminals, use of, 121 + + Tommasi, 42 + + Topinard, 60, 226 + + Troizki, 45 + + Turner, Sir W., 209 + + + Vagabondism and crime, 222 + + Vallès, 254 + + Van Hamel, 44, 47 + + Vaso-motor sensibility of criminals, 121 + + Verlaine, 187 + + Vice and crime, relations of, 221 + + Vidocq, 135, 140, 146 + + Villon, 135, 186 + + Virchow, 64, 202 + + Virgilio, 41 + + Voisin, 32 + + + Wainewright, T. G., 12, 96, 127, 153, 178, 195 + + Warner, F., 301 + + Wey, H. D., 88, 121, 261, 264 + + Wild, Jonathan, 136 + + Willis, 29 + + Wilson, G., 34 + + Wines, F., 255-6 + + Women, crime among, 214 + + + Zanardelli Code, 36 + + Zigoma in criminals, 84 + + Zuccarelli, 41 + + +_Printed by_ WALTER SCOTT, _Felling, Newcastle-on-Tyne_. + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Sander and Richter, _Die Beziehungen zwischen Geistesstorung una +Verbrechen_. See also Lombroso, _L’Uomo Delinquente_, vol. ii., part 3, +ch. 1, for many facts and figures concerning criminal insanity. + +[2] _Journal of Mental Science_, October 1889. This case may be compared +with that of Maria Köster, given in the Appendix D, vi. + +[3] Dr. H. Sutherland, _West Riding Asylum Reports_, vol. vi. + +[4] Quoted by Despine, _Psychologie Naturelle_. + +[5] Appendix by Dr. Paul Lindau to German translation of Lombroso, _Der +Verbrecher_. + +[6] See Introduction by W. C. Hazlitt to Wainewright’s _Essays and +Criticisms_, 1880. + +[7] Lombroso and some other authorities prefer the term “born criminal,” +or “congenital criminal” (_reo-nato_). The term “instinctive criminal” +seems to be safer, as it is not always possible to estimate the congenital +element. + +[8] _Scenes from a Silent World._ By a Prison Visitor. 1889. + +[9] H. Joly, _Le Crime_, 1888, p. 269. + +[10] Whoever wishes to study the modern professional criminal and his +methods should consult Inspector Byrnes’ _Professional Criminals of +America_. It is not a scientific work, and has no reference to +anthropologic methods, but it contains a very large and valuable series of +photographs of contemporary criminals of note, with a sketch of the career +of each. + +[11] The classification of criminals adopted in this chapter corresponds +substantially with that of Professor Enrico Ferri, by him recognised as +provisional. It is also, I find, almost identical with Dr. Colajanni’s. + +[12] Seneca also advocated, in a similar way, the removal without +vengeance of noxious members of the social body: “At corrigi nequeunt, +nihilque in illis lene aut spei bona capax est?--Tollantur e coetu +mortalium facturi pejora quæ contingunt et quo uno modo possunt, desinant +esse mali; sed hoc sine odio. Nam quis membra sua tunc odit cum abscidit? +Non est illa ira, sed misera curatio. Rabidos effigimus canes, et trucem +atque immansuetum bovem occidimus, et morbidibus pecoribus, ne gregem +polluant, ferrum dimittimus. Nec ira sed ratio est, a sanis inutilia +secernere.”--_De Ira_, lib. i., cap. 15. + +[13] This is the term now generally used to signify the science of the +criminal. It is, however, open to objection. “Criminal Psychology” has +been suggested, but is somewhat narrow. Professor Liszt has proposed +“Criminal Biology,” and at the last International Congress of Criminal +Anthropology, Topinard suggested “Criminology.” “Criminal Anthropology,” +however, is so widely used that I have not ventured to introduce any +substitute. The reader must remember that criminal anthropology, although +related to general anthropology, is not merely a branch of that science. + +[14] For a brief summary of its proceedings, see Appendix B. + +[15] See Appendix C. + +[16] It is worthy of note, as Lombroso remarks, that the first +investigator of the criminal in England on modern scientific lines should +be a clergyman--the Rev. W. D. Morrison. See his “Reflections on the +Theory of Criminality” in the _Journal of Mental Science_, April 1889. + +[17] This, and most of the other opinions of Professor Benedikt quoted in +this section, are from _Kraniometrie und Kephalometrie_, Vienna, 1889. + +[18] The evolutionary tendency of the skull among the higher vertebrates +seems to be from the asymmetrical to the symmetrical, while the tendency +of the brain is from the symmetrical to the asymmetrical. See M. O. +Fraenkel: “Etwas über Schädel-Asymmetrie und Stirnnaht,” _Neurologisches +Centralblatt_, August 1, 1888. + +[19] _Archivio di Psichiatria._ 1888. Fasc. VI. + +[20] For an admirable statement of the present condition of the question +see an article by Professor Fallot of Marseilles, “Le Cerveau des +Criminels,” in the _Archives de l’Anthropologie Criminelle_, 15th May +1889. Lombroso’s treatment of this question is extremely brief, and not +always accurate. + +[21] “Lectures on Physiognomical Diagnosis of Disease.” _Medical Times_, +1862. + +[22] “Contributions à l’Étude de quelques Variétés Morphologiques de +l’Oreille Humaine.” _Revue d’Anthropologie_, 15th April, 1886. + +[23] Dr. F. Warner, “Form of Ear as a Sign of Defective Development.” +_Lancet_, 15th Feb. 1890. + +[24] Schwalbe, who distinguishes five principal forms of the Darwinian +tubercle, regards it as normal, and believes that with a little practice +it might be discovered in nearly all ears. This may well be, but in its +distinctly marked form it can scarcely be called normal. + +[25] See his paper, “Lo Scheletro e la forma del naso nei criminali, nei +pazzi, negli epilettici e nei cretini,” in the _Archivio di Psichiatria_ +for 1888. Fasc. I.--Professor Héger, in a communication to the Société +d’Anthropologie of Brussels, remarks that he is able to confirm many of +Dr. Ottolenghi’s conclusions with reference to the nasal aperture in the +cranium, by examination of the skulls of Belgian murderers. + +[26] Almost as well marked as this tendency to fair hair among Italian +sexual offenders--which possibly may be a question of race--is the +predominance of blue eyes. Ottolenghi, who considers it as one of the most +constant characters of the class, gives the following figures:-- + + Blue. Brown. Greenish. + Normal persons 29.04 per cent. 63.91 per cent. 7.05 per cent. + Criminals 35.80 " 59.50 " 4.70 " + Sexual offenders 49.60 " 45.76 " 4.64 " + +Bichromatism (irregular colouring) of the iris is also found with unusual +frequency in this class of offenders. + +[27] Ottolenghi, “La canizie, la calvizie e le rughe nei criminali.” +_Archivio di Psichiatria_, 1889, Fasc. I. + +[28] The surgeon of Leeds prison, in his answers to my Questions, records +his opinion that the red-haired are “relatively more prevalent” among +prisoners than among the ordinary population. This opinion stands alone, +nor is it supported by any figures. + +[29] “Des Anomalies des organes génitaux chez les idiots et les +épileptiques.” _Progrès Medical_, No. 7, 1888. + +[30] Ottolenghi, “Nuove Ricerche sui rei contro il buon costume.” +_Archivio di Psichiatria_, 1888. Fasc. VI. + +[31] Ottolenghi, “II Ricambio Materiale nei Delinquenti-nati.” _Archivio +di Psichiatria_, 1886. Fasc. IV. + +[32] _American Medico-Legal Journal_, June 1888. + +[33] _The Jukes: A Study in Crime, Pauperism, Disease, and Heredity._ By +R. L. Dugdale. Putnam’s, New York, 1877. It may be as well to mention that +when Continental writers refer to the “Yucke,” or “Yuke,” family, they +mean the “Jukes.” + +[34] The cost being, at a very moderate estimate, 47,000 dollars for a +single family during 75 years. The total cost Dugdale estimates at a +million and a quarter dollars during this period, without taking into +consideration the entailment of pauperism and crime on succeeding +generations. The hereditary blindness of one man cost the town 23 years of +out-door relief for two people, and a town burial. + +[35] For the sake of comparison with the non-criminal population, it may +be mentioned that among 2739 soldiers of the Italian infantry Baroffio +found only 41 tattooed--that is, 1.50 per cent. + +[36] This cause doubtless plays the chief part in keeping up the practice +of tattooing among the wealthy and well-to-do. A London professor of the +art, when asked by a representative of the _Pall Mall Gazette_ to what +class of society his customers chiefly belonged, replied: “Mostly officers +in the army, but civilians too. I have tattooed many noblemen, and also +several ladies. The latter go in chiefly for ornamentation on the wrist or +calf, or have a garter worked on just below the knee.” “On what part of +the body are most of your clients tattooed?” “Mostly on the chest or arm; +but some are almost completely covered, patterns being worked on their +legs and back as well. They do not care to have patterns where they would +be seen in everyday life.” + +[37] “Among savage women (with the exception of the Kabyles and the Arabs) +the custom,” remarks Lombroso, “is very infrequent. It scarcely ever goes +beyond the arms or cheeks. Still less can one say that it has been adopted +by the honest women of Europe, even of the poorest class, except in some +rare valleys of Venetia where the peasant women trace a cross on their +arms. Parent-Duchatelet found that prostitutes of the lowest order +tattooed their arms, shoulders, armpits, or pubis with the initials or +name of their lover, if young, or their tribade, if old, changing these +signs, even thirty times (with the aid of acetic acid), according as their +caprices changed. Among the prostitutes of Verona, as I have learnt from a +police official, some instances of tattooing have been noted (hearts, +initials, etc.), but only among those who had already been in prison.” + +[38] “Il tatuaggio nel Manicomio d’ Ancona,” _Cronaca del Manicomio d’ +Ancona_, Nov. 1888. + +[39] _West Riding Asylum Reports_, vol. vi. + +[40] “Il Mancinismo anatomico nei criminali,” _Archivio di Psichiatria_, +1889. Fasc. VI. + +[41] At Tahiti and Viti the sexual organs were sometimes tattooed. Among +142 tattooed criminals, Lombroso found 5 with designs on the penis; +Lacassagne’s very extensive researches show a smaller proportion (11 out +of 1,333). + +[42] The dependence of disvulnerability on insensibility is well shown in +Delboeuf’s experiment: he made two equal and symmetrical wounds on the +right and left shoulders of a hypnotised subject, and suggested +insensibility on the right side. That side healed much more rapidly. + +[43] _Journal Anthropological Institute_, Nov. 1889. + +[44] _Bulletin de la Société d’Anthropologie_ of Brussels, 1885. + +[45] “L’occhio dei delinquenti,” _Archivio di Psichiatria_, 1886. Fasc. +VI. + +[46] Charles Oliver, “The Eye of the Adult Imbecile.” _Transactions of the +American Ophthalmological Society_, 1887. + +[47] _Archivio di Psichiatria_, Fasc. III.-IV., 1889. + +[48] For the sake of comparison, Gradenigo gives the result of examination +of 69 men and women belonging to the ordinary population, chiefly the +lower class. Of these 44.6 per cent. of the men, and 22 per cent. of the +women, showed diminished hearing. + +[49] “L’Olfatto nei Criminali,” _Archivio di Psichiatria_, 1888. Fasc. V. + +[50] _Archivio di Psichiatria_, 1889, Fasc. III.-IV. + +[51] _Studio sul tabacco nei pazzi e nei criminali._ + +[52] _Revue Scientifique_, 1889. + +[53] See Mosso’s own account of the plethysmograph in his attractively +written monograph, _La Peur_, Ch. V. + +[54] _Physical and Intellectual Training of Criminals_, p. 53. + +[55] _Leaves from a Prison Diary_, p. 119. + +[56] _Archivio di Psichiatria_, 1889, Fasc. III.-IV. + +[57] Numerous examples of the moral insensibility of criminals may be +found in Dr. Corre’s book, _Les Criminels_ (1889), p. 157; _et seq._ + +[58] Kitts’ _Serious Crime in an Indian Province_, 1889, pp. 14, 15. + +[59] “The Maoris of New Zealand.” _Journal Anthropological Institute_, +Nov. 1889. + +[60] “Cesare Lombroso’s Werk in seinem Verhältniss für Gegenwart und +Zukunft der gerichtlichen Psychopathologie.” _Friedreich’s Blatter_, +Nürnberg, 1888. + +[61] _History of Crime in England_, vol. ii. p. 255, _et seq._ + +[62] _The Bible in Spain_, Chap. xl. + +[63] _In Russian and French Prisons_, pp. 335, 336. See also Mr. Davitt’s +book. Salillas gives a vivid picture of the fearful extent to which sexual +perversity rules in Spanish prisons, especially in the prisons for women. +The governor of one prison recently used all his influence to put an end +to this state of things. The women compelled him to resign. + +[64] _Recollections of the Dead-House_, Chap. v. + +[65] H. Mayhew, _Criminal Prisons of London_, 1862, p. 188. + +[66] Report of British Special Commissioner, 1887. + +[67] Kitts, _Serious Crime in an Indian Province_, p. 83. + +[68] “La Criminalita nella provincia di Napoli.” _L’Anomalo_, Feb. 1889. + +[69] _Jottings from Jail_, pp. 2-4. + +[70] _Leaves from a Prison Diary_, p. 108. + +[71] Lombroso, “Palimsesti del Carcere,” in _Archivio di Psichiatria_ +during 1888-89; Horsley, _Jottings from Jail_, pp. 20-23; Davitt, _Leaves +from a Prison Diary_, pp. 104-115. + +[72] See, for instance, Dr. Aubrey’s recent work, _La Contagion du +Meutre_, pp. 68-91, and some remarks by Mr. Davitt, _Prison Diary_, p. 85. + +[73] _Essays and Criticisms._ By J. G. Wainewright. Now first collected, +with some account of the author, by W. C. Hazlitt. London: Reeves & +Turner, 1880. + +[74] + + “Je suis Francoys, dont ce me poise, + Nommé Corbueil en mon surnom, + Natif d’Auvers emprès Pontoise, + Et du commun nommé Villon. + Or d’une corde d’une toise + Sauroit mon col que mon cul poise, + Se ne fut un joli appel. + Le jeu ne me sembloit point bel.” + +[75] _Parallèlement_, 1889. + +[76] _History of Crime in England_, 1876, 2nd series, p. 509. + +[77] _La Criminalité Comparée_, 1886, p. 27. + +[78] Thus, for example, the squamoso-frontal articulation is found in less +than 2 per cent. of European skulls, whilst it is found in 20 per cent. +negroes (Ecker) and 16.9 per cent. Australian skulls (Virchow). Again, the +spheno-pterygoid foramen is found in 4.8 per cent. European skulls and in +20 per cent. American Indians, 30 per cent. Africans, 32 per cent. +Asiatics, and 50 per cent. Australians. So also wormian bones are more +common among the lower races. + +[79] A remarkable instance of this simulated atavism is the uniformity +with which (according to Lacassagne, _Archives de l’Anthropologie +Criminelle_, 1886) rapes are effected by methods common among lower races, +and even animals. This is not atavism, but the criminal, being a man of +primitive organisation, will naturally exercise the brutality and lack of +consideration which belong to a lower race. + +[80] It may be noted that Rossi found the same precocity in the abuse of +alcohol, in the form of wine--_i.e._, 11 when children, without knowing +the precise age; 2 at five years, 3 at eight, 1 at nine, 6 at ten; and so +on. And sexual precocity was even more notable. + +[81] E. J. Kitts, _Serious Crime in an Indian Province_, 1889, pp. 8, 85. + +[82] Mr. Horsley has compiled from the Judicial Statistics the following +table of individuals committed more than ten times, with proportion to +total of recommittals:-- + + +-------------------------------------------+ + | Year. | Male. | Female. | Male. | Female. | + |-------|-------|---------|-------|---------| + | 1879 | 3706 | 5673 | 8.3 | 22.4 | + | 1880 | 3691 | 5800 | 8.3 | 23.6 | + | 1881 | 3618 | 6773 | 8.2 | 27.3 | + | 1882 | 4148 | 7496 | 8.8 | 27.4 | + | 1883 | 4391 | 8946 | 8.9 | 29.3 | + | 1884 | 4734 | 9316 | 9.4 | 30.2 | + | 1885 | 5188 | 9451 | 10.0 | 31.6 | + | 1886 | 5074 | 8981 | 10.1 | 33.2 | + | 1887 | 5686 | 9764 | 11.1 | 34.2 | + +-------------------------------------------+ + +[83] While maternity has this beneficial influence, precocious and random +sexual relationships have an equally grave influence in the opposite +direction. This is clearly shown in the valuable details given by Marro. + +[84] _La Criminalité Comparée_, 1886, pp. 51-53. + +[85] “Criminologie,” _Revue d’Anthropologie_, Sept. 1888. + +[86] “L’Anthropologie Criminelle,” _Revue d’Anthropologie_, 1887. + +[87] _Loc. cit._, p. 686. + +[88] All the evidence which has so far been accumulated with regard to the +connection between criminality and epilepsy will be found in considerable +detail in the second volume of Lombroso’s great work, _L’Uomo Delinquente_ +(1889). To announce any definite conclusions would still be premature. + +[89] See Ireland’s _Idiocy_, and Langdon Down’s _Mental Affections of +Childhood and Youth_. The latter contains many valuable facts and +suggestions in this connection. + +[90] _In Russian and French Prisons_, p. 359. + +[91] _Leaves from a Prison Diary._ Lecture I. + +[92] Here and in the following lines I am quoting from Mr. Charles Cook of +Hyde Park Hall, London, whom Mr. Spurgeon has called “the Howard of the +present day.” Mr. Cook deserves all honour for his visits (primarily with +a religious object) to some of the worst prisons of the world--visits for +which he has paid the old penalty of “gaol fever.” With reference to +Ceuta, I should add that Mr. Cook’s impressions are not altogether +confirmed by competent Spanish prison reformers. Ceuta, which dates from +the seventeenth century, is a kind of criminal Gheel, its chief +peculiarity being the close relationship between the free and the convict +population. It is, as Salillas, from whose _Vida penal en España_ I take +the following remarks concerning it, observes, a convict city. There is +not strictly any isolation as in the other prisons of the Peninsula or the +Balearic Isles; nor is it an extraneous focus of moral infection, as at +Saragossa or Valladolid; nor a merely economic supplement, like that of +Alcala and some others; nor, in short, a centre of inaction or of +artificial life. The convicts are an integral part of the population, +sharing in the economic, social, urban, military, administrative, +industrial, and agricultural order of its life, and fulfilling a great +variety of functions. They obtain and carry the materials for constructing +the fortifications and buildings, make and repair the roads, erect forts +and houses, work in timber and in iron, cultivate the field. They are +painters, photographers, shoemakers, tailors, servants fulfilling +confidential domestic duties; they are clerks, even professors lecturing +on arts, sciences, and philosophy. Between the free and the convict +population, Salillas says, there is more than affinity; there is a kind of +organic dependence. Convicts enter the houses without hindrance; no one +regards them with dread, or fears to meet them. Who is the coachman who is +driving? A convict. Who is the lad serving at table? A convict. And the +cook who prepared the meal? A convict. And who takes care of the children? +A convict. And all the chief families, having servants belonging to the +prison, do they not fear robbery, rape, murder, poisoning? No. This +custom, founded in necessity, has its credit in experience. An eyewitness, +Juan Relosillas (_Catorca Meses en Ceuta_, 1886), says--“Everyone calls +them ‘good prisoners’; they are so, faithful, sober, hard-working, +respectful, and intelligent.” + +[93] The impartial Moorish method of administering justice may be gathered +from the following example mentioned by Mr. Cook. One Mogador Jew recently +brought another before their Governor to recover a sum equal to about 6¼d. +Both were thrown into prison, from which they were released on paying the +following little bill:-- + + s. d. + To the Governor, plaintiff, one loaf of sugar 2 0 + " " defendant, " " 2 0 + " two policemen who took them to gaol 0 9½ + " " " them out of gaol 0 9½ + " gaoler 0 4¼ + " " for use of prison lavatory 0 4¼ + ----- + 6 3½ + +It frequently happens that the prisoner is unable to settle his bill, and +is compelled, therefore, to remain a prisoner. + +[94] _Jottings from Jail_ (1887), pp. 186, 190. Judge Willert (_Das +Postulat der Abschaffung des Straffmasses mit der dagegen Erhobenen +Einwendung_), as quoted by Garofalo, uses the same simile to show the +absurdity of this system. + +[95] _Leaves from a Prison Diary_, pp. 173, 174. + +[96] _In Russian and French Prisons_ (1887), pp. 263-283. + +[97] “Le Monde des Prisons,” _Archives de l’Anthropologie Criminelle_, +1888. + +[98] _Sketches from Shady Places_, by Thor. Fredur (1879), pp. 206-7. + +[99] _Enquête Parlementaire_, tome v., pp. 345, 381, 542, quoted by Joly. + +[100] Adolphe Prins, _Criminalité et Répression_, 1885. + +[101] _Le Criminologie_ (1888), p. 220. + +[102] + + “Cu dici male di la Vicaria + Cei farrissi la faccia feddi-feddi. + Cu dici cà la carcere castia + Comu v’ ingannati, puvireddi!” + +[103] + + “Qua sol trovi i fratelli e qua gli amici, + Danari, ben mangiare e allegra pace; + Fuori sei sempre in mezzo ai tuoi nemici; + Se non puoi lavorai muori di fame.” + +[104] _American Prisons_, by the Rev. F. H. Wines, the able secretary of +the National Prison Association. A great amount of valuable information is +compressed into this little pamphlet. Mr. Wines has endeavoured to +ascertain if the variation in usual length of sentence in different states +has any relation with amount of crime in that state. He was not able to +find any connection. “Apparently, the length of jail sentences pronounced +by the court has no effect either to increase or to diminish crime.” If +this is so, there arises, as he remarks, the question, “What useful +purpose do our jails subserve?” + +[105] “Remarks on Crime and Criminals,” _Journal of Mental Science_, July +1888. + +[106] It is unnecessary to consider here the relation of solitary +confinement to insanity. This is still somewhat of a vexed question. The +difficulty lies in the fact that the prisoner is frequently already +predisposed to insanity. Everything depends on how the isolation is +carried out. There is no question that cellular confinement, if +sufficiently prolonged, leads to insanity. There is a very extensive +literature dealing with this subject. + +[107] H. D. Wey, _Physical and Industrial Training of Criminals_, p. 55, +New York, 1888. + +[108] See Dr. Wey’s _Physical and Industrial Training of Criminals_, a +valuable little work, in which all the details of this and similar +experiences are given with care and fulness. + +[109] Sufficient attention does not appear to have been given to music in +prisons. It is a civilising influence to which the criminal is often very +sensitive. An able administrator at the convict prison at Toulon long +since recognised this with happy results. + +[110] For some further information concerning Elmira, see Appendix E. + +[111] It is perhaps worth noting that the highly intelligent and eclectic +administration of Japan have adopted a very similar system, described in +an interesting letter by Mr. H. Norman, the travelling commissioner of the +_Pall Mall Gazette_, under the title of “An Ideal Prison” (_Pall Mall +Gazette_, 18th October 1888):--“Two days previously I had visited the +house of the most famous maker in Japan of the exquisite _cloisonné_ +ware--the enamel in inlaid metal work upon copper--who rivals in +everlasting materials the brush of Turner with his pigments and the pencil +of Alma Tadema with his strips of metal. And I had stood for an hour +behind him and his pupils, marvelling that the human eye could become so +accurate and the human hand so steady and the human heart so patient. Yet +I give my word that here in the prison at Ishikawa sat not six but sixty +men, common thieves and burglars and peacebreakers, who knew no more about +_cloisonné_ before they were sentenced than a Hindoo knows about skates, +doing just the same thing--cutting by eye-measurement only the tiny strips +of copper to make the outline of a bird’s beak or the shading of his wing +or the articulations of his toe, sticking these upon the rounded surface +of the copper vase, filling up the interstices with pigment, coat upon +coat, and firing and filing and polishing it until the finished work was +so true and so delicate and so beautiful that nothing except an occasional +greater dignity and breadth of design marked the art of the freeman from +that of the convict. _C’etait à ne pas y croire_--one simply stood and +refused to believe one’s eyes. Fancy the attempt to teach such a thing at +Pentonville or Dartmoor or Sing-Sing! When our criminal reaches his prison +home in Tōkyō he is taught to do that at which the limit of his natural +faculties is reached. If he can make _cloisonné_, well and good; if not, +perhaps he can carve wood or make pottery; if not these, then he can make +fans or umbrellas or basket work; if he is not up to any of these, then he +can make paper or set type or cast brass or do carpentering; if the limit +is still too high for him, down he goes to the rice-mill, and see-saws all +day long upon a balanced beam, first raising the stone-weighted end and +then letting it down with a great flop into a mortar of rice. But if he +cannot even accomplish this poor task regularly, he is given a hammer and +left to break stones under a shed with the twenty-nine other men out of +2000 who could not learn anything else.” And in regard to punishment Mr. +Norman observes:--“On leaving the dormitories we passed a small, isolated +square erection, beaked and gabled like a little temple. The door was +solemnly unlocked and flung back, and I was motioned to enter. It was the +punishment cell, another spotless wooden box, well ventilated, but +perfectly dark, and with walls so thick as to render it practically +silent. ‘How many prisoners have been in it during the last month?’ I +asked. The director summoned the chief warder and repeated my question to +him. ‘_H’tori mo gozaimasan_--none whatever,’ was the reply. ‘What other +punishments have you?’ ‘None whatever.’ ‘No flogging?’ When this question +was translated the director and the little group of officials all laughed +together at the bare idea. I could not help wondering whether there was +another prison in the world with no method of punishment for 2000 +criminals except one dark cell, and that not used for a month. And the +recollection of the filthy and suffocating sty used as a punishment cell +in the city prison of San Francisco came upon me like a nausea.” + +[112] Wuttke, _Der deutsche Volksaberglaube der Gegenwart_, § 188 ff.; and +Ulrich Jahn, “Ueber den Zauber mit Menschenblut und anderen Theilen des +Menschlichen Körpers,” in _Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_, 1888, Heft ii., p. +130. + +[113] The popular excitement over “Jack the Ripper,” and the Crown Prince +Rudolph of Austria, may be specially mentioned as having produced a large +number of crimes. They are, however, by no means isolated examples. + +[114] It does not appear to be quite the same abroad. Some of those who +are most convinced in their efforts to magnify the scientific and +medico-legal elements in scientific procedure are lawyers; while medical +men show no wish to encroach unduly on the legal aspects. This came out +very clearly at the last International Congress of Criminal Anthropology. + +[115] “Responsibility and Disease,” _Lancet_, 28th July 1888. + +[116] In New South Wales, Tasmania, and Western Australia, the colonies to +which criminals were transported, there is more criminality than in the +other Australian colonies. This hereditary criminality would have swelled +the sum of British crime. + +[117] Thus Dr. Carriel, in a recent Report of the Central Hospital for the +Insane of the State of Illinois, shows that whereas only 19 per cent. of +the population are foreigners, 41 per cent. of the insanity was among +foreigners. + +[118] _Pall Mall Gazette_, 4th Nov. 1889. + +[119] Macé, _La Service de la Sûreté à Paris_. + +[120] In Bavaria, for instance, it has been shown that every increase of +six kreutzer in the price of corn meant one theft more per 100,000 +inhabitants. + +[121] _Criminalité et Repression_, p. 17. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Criminal, by Havelock Ellis + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44500 *** diff --git a/44500-h.zip b/44500-h.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 6f4be20..0000000 --- a/44500-h.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/44500-h/44500-h.htm b/44500-h/44500-h.htm index 9e06f83..41ed76c 100644 --- a/44500-h/44500-h.htm +++ b/44500-h/44500-h.htm @@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> <head> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" /> <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> <title> The Criminal, by Havelock Ellis—A Project Gutenberg eBook @@ -63,45 +63,7 @@ </style> </head> <body> - - -<pre> - -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Criminal, by Havelock Ellis - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. 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